On Friday, I got my first look at Unrest. Too bad you all couldn’t come too, because I think that anyone who plays EQII would be really pleased at what I discovered there.
Of course, I can’t tell you everything and can only let subtle hints drop about the more interesting parts of the zone, because I do not want to spoil your own sense of wonder and discovery. Plus, the Devs would whack me, for much the same reason.

For those of us who remember the old days of Unrest in EQ… well, those of us who admit to being that old… this zone is exactly five hundred years older, and apparently the critters have been pumping iron ever since. The first mobs you encounter in the zone are level 72^^^. These are little flitty gargoyles called “Cucuy”… incidentally, I recognized that name as the “bogeyman” in several Latin cultures, most notably in Mexico. If that question ever shows up in Trivial Pursuit, you’re welcome.

While they did not exist in the old Unrest, you will find plenty of familiar faces and places. Scarecrows and death beetles wander about, interspersed with zombies galore. The hedge labyrinth has withstood the rigors of time, so the shrubberies themselves may be undead. To the east, the gazebo still stands, and should be your first stop if you manage to get past the bogeymen. The water channel where Alluvian accidentally drowned (don’t ask)… still there.

Inside the ancient mansion itself, the design is true to my memory, though with some changes in populace, which is only to be expected… and I can assure you, it makes the zone that much more fun, with more dynamic encounters than I remember from the old days. I rather miss piling out of upper story windows, screaming “TRAIN TO ZONE, MOVE IT OR LOSE IT!!!”, but there are at least balconies to jump from here.
There are no re-used textures or sounds, so the feel and ambience are new, decrepit and creepy. Ok, that sounds like a contradiction in terms, but you get the idea. The sound effects sneak up on you and are very effective.

The zone is full of interesting encounters, some of them downright diabolical. I can guarantee there will be times when you will laugh out loud, while lying on your back, staring at the ceiling and waiting for a rez… unless your whole party has wiped, of course.

The way to sum up the Estate of Unrest is… expect the unexpected. Many things are not what they seem here, as discovered by my tour-mate, the hapless Gninja of ign.com. His experience in Unrest today is SO going to be the butt of… err, topic of my next comic. Poor sap… errr, meaning Gninja, not Brakk. I am scared of Brakk.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, on the front doorstep of Unrest, with the words of Garanel echoing across my screen. “Who dat?” you say? Garanel, the warped and treacherous scion of the Rucksif family, who betrayed and ruined all those around him, is now the undisputed master of this desolate place. He was not at all happy to have peons like us traversing his Estate. I would have felt deeply intimidated if not for the fact that I was in the company of Craig “Grimwell” Dalrymple, Community Relations Manager for SoE and our guide for this tour. I knew he had some tricks up his sleeve for dealing with any grumpy critters that objected to our passing through. I felt like a pretty smug tourist… but I had to wonder exactly how this would play out in live.

Craig assured me that Unrest was designed to be an instanced zone, aimed at a single group of level 70 players, and that raid gear was not going to be a requirement for success. Good thing for players like me, and my closest friends, who avoid raids like the plague. In fact, plague might be preferable to some of the six hour stints I’ve spent raiding. Old Dwarves like me get plank-ass pretty easily and I can never keep the Elfink awake long enough to see the end of raid zones anyway, unless I infuse her with “ines*”, and that carries its own risks.

Still, I looked about at what we used to call the “yard trash” of Unrest in old EQ… scarecrows, zombies, death beetles… and let me tell you, that was some pretty pumped up yard trash. The lowest level mob I saw was a 72^^^. Fortunately, as we moved through the zone and met other denizens (which most often ate Gninja, innately sensing that Dwarf was not as tasty as Gnome, or perhaps it was the “bugger off” spray I liberally doused myself with beforehand), the highest level mob that I saw was 74^^^. No, I did NOT get to meet the corrupted husk of Garanel Rucksif myself; best to save that for live, hmmm?

I would consider this zone very challenging, but doable with a good group. Just remind me to get all my armor repaired first. Maybe pack a repair kit. A lot of players have been desperately awaiting this sort of zone – interesting, difficult and rewarding in scope and content. Best of all… it is doable with a single group of friends.

We were informed by Craig that play testers took about eight hours to complete the zone, but that you can keep almost all of the keys that you acquire along the way for future trips. The sole exception, according to Craig, was the key needed for the final portion of the zone. This means that you and your party can tackle the zone in a series of sessions, instead of one long, mind-numbing one. For the lunatics who do like to play eight to ten hours straight, the good news is that mobs do not respawn, so you can safely take your bio breaks. Please tell me that you do take bio breaks, right? Away from your desk?

Having seen how some of the progression tasks within the zone worked, I think players will enjoy the place a lot. A tremendous number of locked doors and blocked passages will ensure that we all apply thought and find ways to circumvent them, in the grand old tradition of adventure games, and along the lines of “it’s rusted shut; perhaps some oil would loosen it”. We saw an instance where a key was lying in plain sight, although dangerous to get at… allowing players to choose the fast and foolhardy path, or forcing them to consider if another way might be found to get at it more safely.

To say that the adventure aspects of the zone are ingenious is not overstating the facts. The man responsible is Jeremy Gess, Lead Designer for the Unrest project. Attention to detail, appreciation for the old lore of the Estate and devious progression requirements can all be laid at his door. I was impressed. Please sir, can I have some more?

One thing that I particularly enjoyed learning is that many classes are of significant benefit to their party, in gaining access to certain areas. For instance, while anyone can slowly plink a tune on a piano, a bard class can play it masterfully and quickly. Believe me, quickly is good. You want quickly. The point is, while you do not have to include members of any particular class, they will help. There are enough traps in Unrest to warrant considering a Rogue, by the way. I have the scars to prove it. I’d show you, but that’d be a violation of some kind, I am sure.

Unrest will be a FREE download when it goes live. This marks a change in the EQII development cycle, wherein adventure packs are dispensed with, in favor of a longer production cycle for expansions. As Scott Hartsman, Senior Producer for EQII explained to me at CES in January, it will enable the dev team to produce expansions with more depth and breadth, while still allowing periodic revisits to flesh out zones with quests and features to advance the evolving storyline, or even to introduce the occasional new zone, such as Unrest.

Bottom line… get your favorite five people together and camp Game Update #32, slated for release at the end of February.
Come back to Unrest or experience it for the first time. You will not be disappointed. If you are, I want to hear about it!

~Brasse

Postscript…Wren and other glowy addicts will be both annoyed and delighted to find that there is at least one collectible and two tome quests in the zone. Bwa-ha-haaaa… that alone will enable me to drag her butt into the zone to tank for me.