Lords of EverQuest RTS unveiled

We would have brought you something about this last night, but having sat there looking at a zeroed teaser counter for about ten minutes, we got bored and went to the pub.

Anyway, Sony has finally unveiled Rapid Eye's PC RTS, Lords of EverQuest, a real-time strategy game inspired by the online RPG. In fact, the game is strewn with RPG overtones. Players will control one of 15 lords in the world of Antonica, and with a little TLC every unit in the game will be able to gain experience, level up and harness new abilities. Furthermore, there will be loads of items and magical artefacts with which to arm units. And, as you might expect, Internet support is on the cards - for up to 12 players, with dozens of maps.

There will be a concerted single player effort though, as players choose one of three factions and race against one another through 12 levels each to recover a lost artefact. There will be faction-specific units and strategies, massive armies of humans, evles, dwarves, fiends, undead and all sorts, and units will be carried from one mission to the next, so keeping a good-sized force and keeping track of it will be crucial.

Rapid Eye founder and president Mark Caldwell had this to say: "Lords of EverQuest is a revolution in RTS gaming, with a powerful 3D graphics engine, high-polygon characters, the opportunity for all units to grow, and an engrossing EverQuest-related storyline. Our goal is to create the new king in RTS gaming, with the best gameplay, untouchable graphics, and some innovations that gamers will have to see to believe."

The new Lords of EverQuest website should shed some more light on the game for those who are interested. Amongst other things, there's a message from producer James Parker.

Seemingly the only thing the site doesn't touch on is when the game will be out.