Blimey, this is huge. And I've got just 500 words to describe it, you say? Urrr...
Steve Owen

Let's clear this up from the start - this isn't an easy game to mark, or to really appreciate, either on your screen or after several days of playing. Were you the only person in EverQuest, the rest of the world populated by computer characters, then it would be a lot easier. I could simply say that it isn't very good.

But it's not. It's an online game, which is to say that it has the potential to cost you an awful lot of money because sitting down for a session that lasts anything less than three hours is unlikely. You can spend that three hours and not really feel that you've progressed that far, too, in the same way that you can sit in a pub for three hours and feel that you haven't done very much with your life for the last 180 minutes. It doesn't matter, though, does it? It's all a kind of relaxing, social experience, which is exactly how you can play EverQuest. If you want to.

You can treat it like an adventure and actively seek character development, other characters to join forces with, missions to complete and goals to achieve. To be honest, you can play EverQuest any way you like, because it's so massive - frighteningly massive - that while you may not really know where to start, there's no limit to where you can go from there.

EverQuest is a role-playing game in the typically clichéd style of role-playing games, where you start by creating your character from a number of races (dwarves, etc.) and possible classes (warrior and so forth), which dictates not only your strengths and weaknesses but also where you start in the game world, and also where you're entitled to go. Evil characters, for instance, will find it rather difficult to visit anything other than bad towns.