Sony announces EverQuest Next, an MMORPG with destructible environments

Sony Online Entertainment seems to be on the path to bringing the classic EverQuest series back into the spotlight. The company has announced plans for a new game in the MMORPG series, dubbed EverQuest Next. The game has been in development since 2009.

The game will let players explore and interact with the world according to their own individual style of play. According to Sony Online Entertainment, the game doesn't have any levels. It will be launching with more than 40 distinct classes at first, each of which will have its own multi-tiered abilities and specialised weapon skills. Players can even mix and match abilities from different classes according to their own playing style.

That's a beautiful destructible environment you have there...

Sony also claims that the game will feature destructible environments, which is a rarity in MMORPGs. According to the press release, every piece of the game's world is fully destructible and players can manipulate almost all of it. For example, players can reach the deep bedrock beneath the surface by using combat abilities to blow holes into the ground. The game will have a procedurally-generated world which goes both high in the sky as well as deep into the earth.

Players will be able to bring about permanent changes to the game world. They can build walls for cities which other players can come to destroy. Large-scale wars will be fought over control of the land.

Strangely enough for an MMORPG these days, EverQuest Next won't have a big over-arching quest line that unfolds an epic story. Instead, players will have to seek out adventure, fame and fortune in a constantly changing sandbox world. Each character will have their own story unfold around them.

Alongside this, Sony Online Entertainment has also announced EverQuest Next Landmark, which is a sandbox that gives players access to the same tools that the developers used to create objects in EverQuest Next. These objects can be shared with friends and different players can collaborate on a bigger project. EverQuest Next Landmark is set to be the first stage of the eventual launch of EverQuest Next and will be a free-to-play title. The main EverQuest Next game itself will presumably be a subscription-based MMORPG, but there is no information about this so far.