If there’s one thing Sony Online Entertainment has mastered, it’s their uncanny ability to pump out expansion packs at an alarmingly high rate. This begs the question of whether or not Sony’s fast approach hinders their ability to create fully developed expansions. Fortunately for us, with seven years worth of experience starting with the original release of Everquest, Sony has got the routine down to a science. In Kingdom of Sky, the latest expansion for Everquest II, SoE delivers an ample amount of new content targeted primarily towards higher level players including an increased level cap, new quests to be conquered, loot to be plundered, a series of floating islands known as the Overrealm, and an all new achievement system to further increase the power of your characters.
The Kingdom of Sky refers to a cluster of islands floating high above the land of Norrath, and is inhabited by mythical creatures such as ancient dragons, and, most predominantly, a proud bird-race commonly referred to as Aviaks. The islands are broken up into three different realms, each of which possesses a unique type of feel. The Barren Sky, otherwise known as the Realm of Dawn, is an arid desert region where the sun is always shining, and is home to several large palaces. Opposite to the constant light of the Barren Sky, the Bonemire, or Realm of Night, is a rocky crag shadowed by a constant darkness. Lastly, there is the Tenebrous Tangle, or Realm of Twilight, which takes on the feel of an exotic jungle with guarded temples and massive waterfalls. Transportation between realms is achieved through spires that have been implemented within several of the largest zones, while traveling from island to island within a realm is achieved by finding transportation pads, and hitching a ride from a cloud to travel to other nearby islands. It sounds kind of funny, but the cloud riding is pretty fun at first. Just don’t fall off.
With this latest addition of new zones comes a new leveling cap, letting adventurers now gain experience all the way to level 70. As planned, there is no better place to level up from 60 to 70 than in the Kingdom of Sky, allowing players to explore the new areas, start new quests, and find new and exceptionally powerful items. Most areas in the Kingdom of Sky should be tackled with a group or a raid group. Ferocious new epic monsters give guilds all the more reason to work as a team. And we can’t forget that with new levels come new abilities and spells to bring you a few steps closer to omnipotence, giving you all the more reason to want to bash some skulls.
And to all the “lowbies” out there who think that this expansion has nothing to offer to anyone under level 60, let me introduce the new AA system. Alternate Advancement is another way of increasing the power of your character by gaining Achievement points that can be spent towards Achievement abilities. Those of you who have recently played the original Everquest probably know how AA works, but another close example would be the Talent system found in WoW. Once you reach level 20 you gain the ability to receive Achievement experience for discovering new areas and items, as well as from killing named monsters. Once you earn enough achievement experience, you gain a point that can be spent in the Achievement tree. There are five somewhat linear skill paths you can go down within the AA tree. They are all comprised of both passive and active abilities, with a maximum limit of 50 points total. Fortunately, if you decide you made a bad choice and want to spend your points elsewhere, you can pay cash to wipe your slate clean and reallocate your points.
From a visual standpoint, Kingdom of Sky is definitely graphically satisfying. With graphics settings turned high, you might want to keep an eye on your CPU to make sure it doesn’t melt. While the artistic details that went into creating the islands are, at first, aesthetically pleasing, it becomes old after a while. There isn’t a whole lot of variety within the realms themselves. Generally speaking, all the islands are very small and aside from instances within the islands, it can feel a bit cramped at times.
There are several not-so-great aspects of the expansion that are also worth mentioning. To start, with the release of Kingdom of Sky came the release of several bugs. There were a few quest bugs where I couldn’t manage to move onto the next step in the quest due to faulty quest triggers. There are a few other minor bugs, but nothing worth getting your panties in a bundle over.
As far as content goes, it was disappointing to learn that all of the spells and abilities you receive between level 60 and 70 are just upgrades of spells you’ve already received. While these spells are still useful, it would have been more satisfying to have some new skills to add to your arsenal, rather then repeats of older ones.
Lastly, even though you gain the ability to receive achievement experience towards AAs at level 20, it is a very slow-going process. Achievement experience doesn’t necessarily go hand in hand with adventuring and combat experience, and you probably won’t be wracking up a lot of AA points until later levels. After you reach the level 70 cap, all combat experience that you would have gotten for killing monsters turns into achievement experience instead.
With an increase in the level cap and a lot of new high-end content, Kingdom of Sky is a necessity for any hardcore EQII gamer who is encroaching upon level 60. For lower level players, not buying the expansion pack isn’t going to put you at any real disadvantage. However, if you are playing on one of the newly implemented PvP servers, even at low levels, you might want to consider giving Kingdom of Sky a purchase. Traveling through the spires to get to enemy territory is the preferred method of travel on PvP servers, and without KoS you might find yourself straggling behind. Kingdom of Sky gets a B-.
