14 DAY TRIAL // EverQuest Next Landmark, dubbed simply Landmark, available only to select (and lucky) members of the gaming community during its closed beta, has just hit Steam Early Access.
The massive building MMO is intended as both a standalone sandbox meant for players to unleash their creativity in, as well as a testing ground for the upcoming massively multiplayer online role-playing game EverQuest Next.
For now, Landmark is all about exploration, and mining, crafting and generally building crazy and awesome stuff, as the testers have shown time and time again during the closed alpha, with their mad voxel stacking prowess.
Sone Online Entertainment plans to add a lot of features that we'll see in EverQuest Next later this year, such as combat (which might hit as early as July), survival gameplay, as well as a procedurally generated underworld.
There are a ton of things to be added yet, as the latest major patch added oceans to the game, but there is currently no way for characters to swim, so players can simply pull a Chris Angel and walk on water.
The cheapest package available on Steam allows full access to Landmark, but with less exclusive items and starter gear. Landmark doesn't function in the way Minecraft does, where everything is available from the get-go, but instead it requires much more time and dedication.
In order to start building stuff, you have to put in the time to claim a plot and work for the privilege to use the advanced building tools, which entails a ton of going around the scenery and killing rocks with your mighty pickaxe.
Once you do get past the steep entry curve, Landmark becomes a very powerful building game, with SOE advertising the fact that player-created templates will soon be sellable on the SOE Player Studio for real money, providing an incentive for creative players to justify the time investment in the game.
It's certainly going to be interesting to follow Landmark and see when the first in-game corporation pops up. It won't be any time soon, however, since Sony Online Entertainment warns that the game is currently subject to progress wipes between now and launch time, and that new updates will arrive weekly.
Luckily for those willing to spend time with the game, the Landmark Blueprint forum feed keeps track of incoming wipes throughout the beta, as well as new features to be added to the client.
Additionally, there are a ton of updates coming to Landmark later this month, such as cave creation tools, enabling gamers to dig deeper beneath the Earth in search of raw minerals and other materials, so we're eagerly waiting for the first recreation of Moria.