Lineage II Review

Lineage II is a fantasy MMORPG developed and published by NCSoft. A prequel to the original Lineage, Lineage II sets players in a land at war between three kingdoms, creating a strong emphasis on PvP. The game features massive server-wide PvP siege battles, raid bosses, an advanced combat system with real-time tactical decisions, clans with Clan Halls, and pets and mounts. 

Storyline:

When the fourth seal was broken, Shilen, the Goddess of Destruction, awakened from her long sleep in the darkness. She sacrificed her followers in the Necropolis and Catacombs and used the dark energy from their deaths to summon a Dark Moon to use as her eyes to see the world.

Shilen exhaled, and the sky ran red. She sprayed her blood over the continent. Monsters drank her bloody rain and became enraged. Countless people died, providing sacrifices to strengthen the darkness that was Shilen's power. Villages and ports shut down, one by one.

The Goddess of Destruction tore the floating city of Ye Sagira from the sky. This act released the spirit of Hermuncus, the last surviving Giant, who had been imprisoned there. Long ago, Shilen persuaded the Giants to steal power from the god Einhasad. This brought her wrath down upon the Giants and led to their ruin. As the last Giant, Hermuncus hid Einhasad's stolen power somewhere deep in a lost dimension to keep Shilen from that power.

Shilen was thwarted. Shilen's attack on Ye Sagira did not let her seize Einhasad's power from Hermuncus in Ye Sagira, where she believed that power was hidden. Instead, it gave the Giant a chance to revive Hermuncus's tribe. He approached Humans with a proposal: Help him release his body, reunite it with his spirit, and revive his tribe, and in return, he would awaken their latent powers.

The world seemed to be ending. The gods were unreachable. The Humans accepted Hermuncus's proposal. The two forces would join to resist Shilen.

Features:

To begin playing Lineage II, players create a character as their avatar in the game's medieval-style virtual world. All the races start off at Talking Island. Players can choose from either fighter or mystic professions at the start, except for Dwarves and Kamael which are only able to select the fighter profession; this choice acts as an archetype for later profession options. Each race has its own set of classes, even if humans, elves and dark elves have a lot of classes that are very similar to their counterparts in the other two races.

There is currently a large number of classes (36) for all races combined. Each race and subsequent class has a set amount of Stat Points already assigned to their class.

Upon completing the quests after reaching level 75, a player may add subclass to their character. This subclass starts at level 40. Limitations are put in place on which subclass one can choose (e.g. Dark Elves may not choose Elf subclasses. In addition, a player may not choose a class that matches their main class (a Dark Avenger may not become a Paladin, likewise a Treasure Hunter may not become a Plains Walker). Once a subclass has reached level 75, players may choose another. A character may hold a total of three subclasses in addition to their main class.

In Lineage II, a player can obtain a monster that becomes his or her pet through the completion of quests. Unlike other summons or magic, as long as certain conditions are met, a pet will not be bound by time limitations, nor will it be dismissed by force. These pets can also hold most items in their inventories while they are called, including pet weapons and armor that can be equipped on the pet.

Lineage 2 is an open PvP game, where players can be attacked at any point (though there is a penalty for killing players who don't fight back). A large focus of the game is also on largescale PvP battles over the Lineage 2 castles. While there are still some balance issues, the quality of PvP in Lineage 2 is amazingly high.

The only real downside to Lineage II is the community. With the grind being so high bots are rife. Also with the rare items being pricey there are a lot of farmers and gold seller/buyers. So monsters, dungeons and bosses are usually camped.

Overall Lineage II is a good example of a typical MMO with some fun PvP and interesting environments. 

Tags:  Fantasy MMORPG, NCSoft, Lineage II

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