Everquest Next - Preview @ PC Gamer

PC Gamer takes a look at EverQuest Next Landmark in this new hands-on preview.

EverQuest Next Landmark is the creative building counterpart to EverQuest Next. Initially, players will adventure through untouched continents on massively multiplayer servers, stake land claims, and build whatever they want (unless it's copyrighted or a giant penis) with a powerful set of voxel tools. Later on, Landmark will include AI, combat, and DM tools, but its early 2014 launch starts with the basics. Last month, I visited Sony Online Entertainment's San Diego studio to try out a pre-alpha version of the toolset and see what I could build in a few hours.

Landmark gives us the power of scaleable blocks, copy and paste, undo, spheres, smoothing, selections, fill and delete functions, and more, but the blocks still need to be placed deliberately. The smoothing tool, for instance, won’t efficiently mold large, hard edges into nicely beveled joints, or turn a giant floating block into a flying saucer. So it's a mix between Minecraft and 3D modeling, but with more of the former than the latter—simplicity and intuitiveness is prioritized over efficiency.

Landmark will be free to play early next year. And once the first wave of players has populated the servers with sci-fi slums, ancient ruins, elvish villages, or whatever it is they're inclined to build, SOE will be expanding the toolset with the same systems it's using to build EverQuest Next. My giant little tavern, then, might actually be populated with NPCs serving booze, my caves might be crawling with creatures from the netherworld, and great castles may actually be useful strongholds—especially in PvP areas.