Echoes of Faydwer - hands on

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Bursting at the seams with new content, this expansion will keep real life at bay

We recently got some hands on time with the beta version of Echoes of Faydwer and it looks like EverQuest II fans will have a good reason to put real life on hold and order some pizza as it’s jam packed with more content than any other expansion released for the granddaddy of MMORPGs. Unlike previous expansions which focused on new content for particular level ranges, Echoes of Faydwer will include new questing grounds for all levels with plenty of end-game bosses for raiders to take down.

Fans will recognize the new continent, Faydwer from the original EverQuest. But a lot has changed since the Shattering, a cataclysmic event where Norrath’s moon erupted, showering the land with meteors. During your adventures, you’ll get to find out what happened on Faydwer since then as Echoes of Faydwer connects the dots between the lore of EverQuest and EverQuest II for the first time.

We started off by creating a Fae, the new playable race. You’ll be able to choose from a variety of colorful and intricate wing designs for these faerie-like forest dwellers. Although the Fae’s wings aren’t strong enough to let you fly vertically, they do allow for an incredibly fun racial feature - gliding. The Fae have no fear of falling and we had a blast gliding down into the depths of the forest from the tallest cliffs and ledges we could find.

Most of our time was spent leveling up and questing with our new Fae in Faydwer’s starting area, the Greater Faydark. It’s a lush and colorful forest, teaming with life. Many of the early quests involved fighting off the Crushbone Orc menace and investigating a strange disease which was poisoning the peaceful wildlife of the forest.

The Fae’s main city, Kelethin is situated near the center of the Greater Faydark area. You’ll have to ride giant acorn elevators to reach the town above which consists of multiple platforms built around the treetops and connected by bridges. Kelethin has several levels and we were pleased to find out that we could use the Fae’s gliding ability to take shortcuts as we glided down from upper levels to get to where we needed to go.