The Cellar

Oh yes. It is good.

I've got a warrior and a priestess already up to level 5, and even though I absolutely HATED EQ, I am really enjoying EQ2.

The death system, which was my biggest hang up in EQ, is more like City of Heroes + DAoC, meaning, when you die, you gain "debt", which is tacked on to your current experience points. As you kill things, the XP goes 1/2 to debt, 1/2 to XP. You can choose to revive at one of a few locations in the zone, leaving a "shard" of yourself behind. You keep all your gear on you (no more "running naked" through dangerous zones) but lose some stat points. If you go get your shard, you recoup most of your debt and get your attribute points back. If you fail to get your shard, you keep the lowered attributes for 3 real time days (72 hours) and you have to work off all the debt incurred at death.

The crafting system is very much like Horizons. Meaning, you have to harvest (or buy) the materials then make the resources, then use the resources and or other materials to make the end product. I really enjoyed that system in Horizons, and I've gotten to level 4 crafting with both toons.
My warrior is going to be an outfitter/armorer and my priestess is going culinary arts :) .

The graphics kick ass, and look and move alot like Horizons.

Character creation has less choices than Horizons, more like what DAoC is going to be like with the catacombs expansion. You can alter the face by changing the nose, eyebrows, lip thickness, chin width, eye shape and color, skin tone, etc. The frogloks are not available yet, like Horizons, they are forcing players on each server to "free" the race to make it playable.

The NPC's talk here, which can be turned down so you can read the speech bubble in peace if you want.

The mobs look good, and there is a new thing now where you get a "power" at level 5 which triggers a "heroic event". There are 3 or more steps to a heroic event, the first is the trigger, then one of your special attacks, then a different special attack, etc. Different combinations give a special attack, which hits for more damage. In addition, if you manage to get that special attack, there is a chance that you get a special chest after the fight is over with goodies in it (like a 6 slot bag or a special weapon).

Overall (and understand I haven't even seen Qeynos yet, just the tutorial and the starter island) this ROCKS, and I'm really excited about it.