Last Update: May 11, 2007

Lineage II Chaotic Chronicle Summary

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If I had to sum up Lineage 2 in a vehicular form, I’d say it’s a truck stop on the way to up and coming releases such as World of Warcraft. You’re glad you’re there but you’re not going to stay for long. Having had a good play of the game I have come to the conclusion that, while it is indeed a good game, it isn’t a great game – there are others that do it better. Allow me to explain.

As with many MMORPGs (or LOPOs, which stands for Lots of Online Players at Once), getting that first character started is the hardest part of the game, especially if you haven’t played many other LOPOs before. There’s a new language of abbreviations to learn, politics to master and the of course the economy. None of this is easy. In Lineage 2, you’ll find that the first few hours are spent updating the game (even with broadband, the update time for Half-Life 2 pales in comparison). While you wait for the updates to finish, you can set up your account.

A special commendation goes out to the army of support staff and Games Masters (GM) who are always on hand to deal with any issue you come across. Everything from simple typos to rather nasty bugs are worth their attention and you’ll never have to wait long, in game or out, for support. They answered all my questions within 24 hours regardless of when I asked them. Even at 3am on a Saturday morning, you can play away safe in the knowledge that an NC representative is close by. The time spent updating means that only broadband customers will realistically buy the game, although this can be said of most LOPOs out at the moment. Downloading the game is possible but it takes a considerable amount of time and while it may appear to be free of charge, continued play will cost you. Those of us still cursed with dialup will have to look elsewhere unless you’re the sort who likes playing solitaire a lot.

After the game loads the first thing you’ll do is pick a server. There are nine servers to choose from and each server has its own clans, alliances, political structures etc. The newest server, Teon, is probably the best place to get started. It doesn’t have as many high level characters as other more established servers and Player Killing is rare.

Next up is picking a name for your new character. There are five races to choose from including Orks, Elves, Humans and Dwarves. Character customisable features include the face and hairstyle of your character, which allows you to create your own look. My only qualm here is the lack of variety, there needs to be more choice in this area of the game because everyone looks identical at the worst of times and too similar at the best of times. I know you can further customise clothing but it still isn’t enough. As for selecting the race of your character, there is a definite preference among Lineage 2 players towards dark elf females. No prizes for guessing why either.

After you’ve gotten set up with an account, updates, a working server (most of the servers have minimal downtime) and the right mindset you get to shoot at stuff. Each character starts in a different location depending on race. Your first quest is usually a hunt and gather affair. The reward is a world map (very handy) that shows the world of Aden. It’s a big place with lots of places that have cool names, but getting around is a drag, its footslogging all the way because the only methods of transport available are exorberantly expensive. A ticket from Talking Island (where human mystics start) to the mainland costs 2,400 adena. That’s about two hours of play time. Therefore, many could agree with me that the fun starts sloping off after this point. Until you get to level 20, the game is little more than chase, kill and collect. Chase a monster, kill it, pick up what it drops. This grows tiresome in a very short space of time and is colloquially called the exp grind, the adena grind or simply the grind.
source: gameseurope.com

Game Information

Publisher: NCSoft
Developer: NCSoft
US Release Date: Apr 27, 2004
Euro Release Date: Apr 27, 2004
ESRB:
MSRB: Unknown
Available Platforms:

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