Everquest: Planes of Power

EverQuest: The Planes of Power introduces EverQuest players to an arching story line through the Planes of Power, home of the gods of Norrath. Hundreds of new items, quests, and encounters will keep even the most revered players challenged and enthralled.

In The Planes of Power, a portal has been unveiled that leads to a world unlike anything anyone has ever seen. Players can share in the knowledge of this extraordinary discovery as they fight to bring justice to Norrath. Veteran players will face fresh challenges in each of the 18 newly discovered planes, while novice players will benefit from the Plane of Knowledge that hosts scores of new and challenging quests along with open portals to Norrath, making travel faster and easier than ever. Players will fiercely battle the minions of Rallos Zek in the Plane of War, join arms with Karana to regain control of the Plane of Storms, and overcome vile pestilence in the Plane of Disease.

In many ways, "Planes of Power" (PoP) is one of the best of the Everquest expansions, raising the level limit, bringing in more planes (extradimensional homes of the gods) than in the rest of the game, spectacular new enemies to fight and a single overarching storyline that spans 19 levels and puts the most powerful characters in a battle against the forces of creation, freeing Norrath's equivalent of Prometheus, the god who gave magic to mortals and who was imprisoned by the others for his crime in a place no one would ever be able to find him ...

This all sounds pretty good, but for an expansion not designed to be the finale for the most successful American MMORPG, it has painted the rest of the game into something of a corner.

For starters, where does the game go once players have gotten more power than other (enough that some players are now soloing dragons that normally up to 30 people to kill) and have defeated almost all of the gods? Fighting a really, really, REALLY tough orc who happens to be as tough as the God of War strains credulity -- more than that, it's just plain silly.

Secondly, the expansion also includes the Plane of Knowledge, a plane every level 1 character can reach by clicking on the bookstand outside starting cities. And because all such cities are included (along with a few other locations in Kunark, Velious and Luclin), travel distances in the game are all but a memory. Instead of evil characters having to suffer the consequences of their evil, all characters may now use the factionless Plane of Knowledge as a home base without consequences, and may skip past barriers to go anywhere they want, almost at will. While this is inarguably a convenience, part of the appeal of Everquest was its wealth of content. PoP turns EQ into a Readers Digest version of Norrath, with players able to skip between the highlights, and now any zone more than two zonelines away from Knowledge is a back water where many players simply will not go. The game has been forever changed, and this is one genie unlikely to ever be put back in the bottle.

As for the content itself, it's good. It uses existing lore, draws us into the ongoing story of the game, and the planes are often real eye-poppers (the Plane of Innovation, with its magical clockwork robots run amok and the fleshscape of the Plane of Disease are two of the show-stoppers).

None of it other than Knowledge can be accessed by characters under level 46, and the other planes require further levels, characters to succeed in certain quests, characters to have beaten certain raid bosses (in events involving dozens of other characters) or all of the above. The vast majority of the player base will never see at least six of the zones in PoP. While most of the previous expansions had zones similar to this, they were usually a mere one or two per expansion (Veeshan's Peak in Kunark, Sleeper's Tomb and the Plane of Mischief in Velious, Vex Thal in Luclin), and six zones are an awful lot of content for players to pay for and never use -- essentially subsidizing the content for the most powerful guilds.

For what it is, PoP is enjoyable, and a lot of fun. But much of it feels like well-meant mistakes. Game balance is changed forever, much of the older content is sinking into obscurity, and Everquest's great system of faction that made player characters part of a world where actions matter is more or less irrelevant now.

"Everquest: Planes of Power" is a lot of fun (especially if you enjoy raiding), but it's hard to see how the game can continue on much longer in any recognizable form after this.

Recommended for the great deal of utility Everquest players will get from the expansion, especially players with characters level 46+.

Another problematic feature of this add-on is the overpowered "gear" that one can obtain from the high-end encounters featured in "PoP." Introducing too much "uber gear" to an MMORPG game is precisely what ultimately ruined "Diablo 2" when the "Lord of Destruction" expansion was released. For many gamers, the focus becomes shifted away from roleplaying and game content, and instead toward greed for items which they can strut and show off to other players. It also tends to make player characters who *can* manage to obtain those items a bit too powerful, which hardly seems to fit in with Sony's highly questionable assertions... that several prior ability nerfs were done to "better balance the classes." If anything is true about "Planes of Power," it's that it is decidely UN-balanced in the extreme.

Painfully short on game content, all too few and sloppily written quests, overly lengthy encounters and a generally poor payoff in the "Plane of Time" endzone are what one can expect from this mediocre expansion pack. Whilst it is a "must have" for all EverQuest players, it hardly stacks up well against prior expansions such as "Scars Of Velious" or "Shadows Of Luclin" so far as actual depth, atmosphere and overall content is concerned. This is also the first EverQuest expansion set which the original game designers (Verant International) had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with, and it shows. Moreover, "Planes Of Power" is an expansion pack which 99% of all players will never see the bulk of, due to their being unable to assemble the "muscle" required to fully explore the additional zones and adversaries. Not being able to see three quarters of a game you pay for is rather disappointing (to say the least), so unless you already belong to a highly-skilled player guild, do not expect to progress past a very superficial point in this add-on to EverQuest.

Lastly, "The Planes Of Power" tends to look and play more like a Sony PlayStation 2 game than an add-on for a classic PC based MMORPG. Storyline depth and roleplaying content has been replaced in favour of eye candy, overpowered enemies, and ridiculously and unnecessarily overpowered items designed to appeal to player egos. "PoP" is not entirely without merit, but depending on what you look for in a roleplaying game, you may be disappointed overall. Defenders of this add-on have often said to me "Well, Sony knows what sells, that's why PoP is the way it is, and that's the bottom line." Naturally, I have no problem with manufacturers of PC games making a profit on their merchandise, but I see no reason why profits and product integrity need be mutually exclusive concepts.

Thumbs down overall, but a necessary add-on for all EverQuest players.

Cons:- Careful about leveling past 63. Many mobs turn light blue at 62 & 63 in PoP. So, level to 63, then put AA at 100% until desired abilities are max'd out. Otherwise, it's back to hours of grinding exp if one levels to 65 first.- If one does not belong to a high level guild and is not at least level 55, it is almost impossible to get a group anywhere in PoP. Don't waste your time.- Parchments drop from specified mobs and when turned in to like classes will return a level 60+ spell. Sometimes a duplicate of what one might already have. This can be very tedious for some when there are groups made up of mostly casters all looking for parchments... and one can typically exp for 3-4 hours before just one drops.- Some zones are available immediately upon install of PoP, while one needs a flag (similiar to keyed zones) for others. Flagging is done by completing a series of single group and multi-group missions. It's the usual, if one person fails, everyone fails.- Watch your faction! There is a prison in Plane of Justice (PoJ) that has its prisoners on different factions.- Any new drops for melees aren't much of an upgrade to bother with.

Enchanters/Casters:For those that felt Enchanters were never wanted, needed or used, PoP has changed all that. It is difficult to play PoP without an Enchanter in the group. PoP mobs have a much smaller agro range and heal agro is pretty bad in some zones. Mez should be mem'd at all times. In PoP, casters swear by their horses. If you don't have one, get one. KEI is not enough. Die once, and it's gone.

New to EQ:The only thing PoP offers to the new user is the ease of transportation PoK offers. This is new a feature many now cannot live without in EQ, but it will be up to you how much it's worth. Considering how long it takes to learn all the ins and outs of the game, there is no doubt PoP will be low on the purchase list as a low level character.

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