It is the sequel to the original EverQuest, released five years earlier, and features updated graphics and more streamlined gameplay compared to the previous entry, as well as an abundance of voice acting with contributions from actors such as Christopher Lee and Heather Graham.

The game is set in an alternate future 500 years after the events of the first EverQuest, and is meant to run alongside its predecessor without interfering with the original story.

While originally subscription-based since its launch, a free-to-play version with its own dedicated server was released in July 2010 called EverQuest II Extended.

In November 2011, the subscription service was cancelled in favor of making all remaining servers free-to-play with microtransactions as the revenue stream.

The character can adventure (complete quests, explore the world, kill monsters and gain treasures and experience) and socialize with other players.

Like players, guilds can gain experience and levels, partially from players completing special tasks called Heritage quests, but primarily from guild-oriented quests and tasks called "writs", and gaining guild experience by killing epic monsters.

The Froglok race was originally locked until a special server-wide quest was completed to make them playable.

Upon death, characters respawn with their gear intact at specific revival locations, with a minor experience debt to be repaid.

Players could type "/pizza" into the chat bar, which would open the online ordering section of the Pizza Hut website.

Krono works like the Plex currency in EVE Online: it allows players to buy an in-game item for real money that adds 30 days of Gold subscription to the account.

The actors used for these parts included Hollywood stars such as Heather Graham (as Queen Antonia Bayle), Christopher Lee (as Overlord Lucan D'Lere) and Minnie Driver (as 'Dancer').

Wil Wheaton, Dwight Schultz, Richard Horvitz, Alan Dale and Danica McKellar are also part of the cast.

According to SOE, in October 2004, EverQuest II featured 130 hours of spoken dialog recorded by 266 voice actors.

Purchasers of the EverQuest II Collector's Edition received a soundtrack CD as part of the package.

The expansions, Echoes of Faydwer and Rise of Kunark, included many themes from the corresponding zones in the original EverQuest, arranged by Inon Zur.

With EverQuest II, Sony Online Entertainment introduced the concept of Adventure Packs (an innovation created by Sean Kauppinen, who was the head of international Product PR at the time).

Expansions generally introduce many new zones with new plot lines, features, creatures, items, cities and often come with a boost in the level cap or a new player race.

EverQuest II has been used by academics to study a variety of phenomena; for example, that virtual economic behavior in EverQuest II follows real-world patterns in terms of production, consumption and money supply;[21] and observations that less than one percent (0.43%) of all the players are Platinum Farmers and more than three quarters (77.66%) of all Platinum Farmers are Chinese.

[22] EverQuest II had mostly positive reception from critics, earning an 83 out of 100 average score from aggregate review website Metacritic.

[27][28] Greg Kasavin of GameSpot said that EverQuest II isn't the massive step for the genre that its predecessor was, but it can still be a fun and addictive online role-playing experience that provides to offer for new and experienced players.

[28] Lopez would ultimately declare that EverQuest II was "extremely fun to play, frequently rewarding, and designed with just the right amount of user convenience in mind".

Kasavin additionally commented that the developers of this engine were presumably thinking ahead towards to the future when they built EverQuest II's technology, but that game's visuals were not so impressive to justify the extreme system requirements.

[35] GameSpy granted EQII the title of "Most Improved Game" during its 2006 annual PC awards due to the addition of PvP servers and the release of the Echoes of Faydwer expansion that same year.

[36] After adopting a free-to-play model in 2011, the title was named "Best Bang for the Buck" in Massively's annual awards that same year.

[37] EverQuest II reached 100,000 active accounts within 24 hours of release, which grew to over 300,000 two months later in January 2005.