Last night, Sony Online Entertainment hosted a virtual tour of some environments in its latest EverQuest II expansion, Sentinel’s Fate. I took the chance to take about a zillion screenshots of that (I apologize ahead of time for the quality, but the guy hosting had to turn his graphics down a fair bit for the stream). I put those in a slideshow with another zillion official Sony screenshots in the slideshow below. But now, a little more information about what I saw.

The Sentinel expansion features a higher level cap (90), new overland zones (The Sundered Frontier and Stonebrunt Highlands), 12 new dungeons, 400 new quests (you will supposedly be able to have multiple active quests), five new Heritage Quests, more 2x and 4x raid zones, 2,000 new weapons/armor/items, alternate advancement abilities, and hundreds of new creatures.

On our tour, we saw parts of a brand-new zone where you basically play a giant game of Clue. You see a dead NPC and clues that lead to the murderer. Find the murderer, win fantastic cash and prizes! What kinds of cash and prizes? Well…

“I can’t reveal the rewards for completing the dungeon yet. But they’re bound to be awesome,” said EverQuest II Community Relations Manager Christine “Kiara” Renzetti. “Once you complete the zone, the next time you come back to do it again, the killer will be a different person and the object and location as well.” So it sounds like you can do this as often as you want.

In addition, a storyline some players didn’t like is on its way out. “A lot of folks just don’t like the Void storyline and are tired of it after The Shadow Odyssey. This expansion wraps it up and we’ll be moving to another story in the next one,” Renzetti told me.

This expansion is for characters who are level 80+, but if you’re intrigued, there’s no reason to be apprehensive about starting a new game in the EverQuest world. “There is a TON of content for those just starting out and so much to see and do on the way that I always advise people to take their time and experience the game to the fullest. The newest newbie zones are indeed very user friendly. Our game has a lower learning curve to start than many games I’ve played.” So go ahead and give it a shot!

Since Christine’s had a good amount of time to play, I decided to ask a tough question or two. What is she most looking forward to in the official release? What do seasoned EverQuest players have to look forward to?

“I can’t really pick a favorite thing for myself. I love the art in this expansion. It’s absolutely stunning. I can’t wait to get into The Hole (lots of nostalgia from EQ!) and I am eager to play in the Erudin Library and solve the mystery. I’m also very excited that we’re introducing Battlegrounds!”

The Sentinel’s Fate expansion will have two release dates: Pick up a physical copy on February 16th, or (if you can wait that long), the digital download will be available February 23rd. Do you think you read that wrong? You didn’t. If you buy the physical copy, you get a full week of extra time. The expansion has an MSRP of $39.99 and the same $14.99 monthly subscription fee.