Lineage 2 - Pretty, Bloody, Vacant
Lineage 2 is famous in gaming circles, and for all
the wrong reasons. The impression on its launch was that
it really had turned out to be online anarchy, and it's
still used as an example of pretty much everything that
can go wrong with a game launch four years later, from terminal
crashes to insecure servers. But four years and three expansions
later, Lineage 2 is an online RPG that's changed almost
beyond recognition.
 AO
carves its own niche in the MMORPG market simply by not
being a fantasy game. As a science-fiction RPG, its only
real niche competition is franchise games like Star Wars
Galaxies, and EVE Online. Yet Lineage 2 has its own distinct
feel - over time it's built its own universe, and just that
makes it feel immersive. There's a lot of work in back-story,
and while you can play as if there was no plot, you'll enjoy
it more if you have a better grasp of what's going on.
Lineage 2 is, obviously, the sequel to the original Lineage
MMORPG, a game that was hugely popular in Asia, but never
quite cracked the Western market. The sequel has made the
breakthrough into the American online RPG market, thanks
largely to some astonishing graphics that make for a stunning
first impression, but pushing past that, Lineage 2 is very
much a niche game.
L2 is a classic fantasy RPG. You choose between five races;
human, orc, dwarf, elf, and dark elf. They're all much as
you'd expect; the ears are pointy and the women are well-defended
from opponents who aim for the nipples. There are two initial
choices of profession, fighter or mage, except if you're
a dwarf. As a trade-off for being the only class who can
craft, dwarves can only be fighters. The character models
really are lovely, easily on a par with World of Warcraft.
This is lucky, because customisation is so limited it's
practically non-existent. You'll be looking to armour up
just so you can tell which one is you.
 And
that's going to be a problem in itself, because the economy
in Lineage 2 is insane. Even the most basic items are hugely
over-priced when compared with the size of the monster drops.
There's a crafting system and a player market, but when
components are so expensive, players simply can't push the
market price down. Speaking of the player market, it's run
by sellers physically going into towns and sitting on the
ground, with a little sign over their head saying what they're
selling. Given the way the female characters have to sit
in their tiny little skirts, you'd be forgiven for misunderstanding
what was for sale.
Levelling is slow, and comes down to grinding, yet everything
is so expensive you'll still end up farming monsters for
cash. The monster models are excellent, but the AI isn't
great (at lower levels monsters simply stand there doing
nothing until you start hitting them) and combat is pretty
much 'auto attack', so grinding is a real chore. There's
a quest system in place, but quests are level-based, so
even if that's the path you want to take, you're still going
to have to grind.
While character and monster models are stunning, they show
up the lack of work that's been put into the backgrounds.
Better that than the other way around, but still, the lack
of any decent textures stands out, and in some places you
can see seams, black lines, big triangles...
Sound is excellent. The game comes with 171 .ogg files,
and it shows, beautiful orchestrations running quietly in
the background, providing atmosphere without ever really
forcing their presence on you.
If you don't like PvP, you should stay well away from L2.
Player killing is rampant, and in fact sometimes the journey
from the training area to the nearest town is like a game
of homicidal bullrush, there are so many high-level characters
hanging around griefing. There's a karma system in place
which brands characters Neutral, Aggressive, or Chaotic,
and Chaotics are more likely to drop items when killed,
can't use the market, and are attacked on sight by town
guards. You work off karma by killing monsters though, and
you're going to be doing a lot of that anyway.
What Lineage 2 is really well set-up for is inter-guild
combat. They have huge battles to control castles, and the
winning guild gets to impose taxes, make special items,
and train dragons, for as long as they can hold it.
 L2
also looks to be content-rich for some time. The first of
a planned twelve expansions or chronicles is out, adding
new regions to an already huge map and introducing the castle
sieges as well as making minor tweaks to functionality.
At least you won't run out of new places to kill things
in the near future.
Basically, Lineage 2 is a great game for players who like
PvP and guild combat. Joining a guild is expensive, though,
so even if that's really your thing, you're still going
to have to endure some grinding. This game has chosen to
move right away from the trend of viewing things like griefing
and farming as problems and made them almost essential.
Overall Rating: 7.4/10
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