AUTHOR: Geek Woman | PUBLISHED: Dec. 19, 2007
Sound/Music:
The sound effects and music were good. There are many engaging tracks to listen to in the game but in general during travel and grinding the music wasn't anything especially noticeable. Wearing headphones was very immersive. The sound effects for casting were superb. The character spoke a slightly different chant for each spell. Background sound effects were good. The buzzing of flies sounded real, there were plenty of bird and water sound effects. There could have been more music throughout the game. On the islands or as you enter the towns dungeons or cave areas scene painting music queues up when you enter.
Gameplay:
When you begin the game you are told to select a primary profession. You can select the hair color and style, the face, and the skin tone that your character will have. To start with you pick out a race such as dark elf, elf, dwarf, orc or human. Then you choose the profession such as mage, or warrior to play as. There is a brief tutorial that gives you access to learn the basic skills. By annihilating scores of minor creatures with the starting equipment that you are given your character will gain experience points. Gradually. In the case of Lineage 2 verrry, gradually. In time the character will gain strength, abilities and magic. The experience of battle racks up points which increase the effectiveness of weapons and skills in battle.
You are left to your own devices fairly shortly, no attempt is made to hold your hand by the game. You have to figure it out on your own. Largely there isn't much to do beyond killing everything in sight until you reach the next significant level where you can access more skills. Get used to hunting because it is what you will be doing for long stretches of levels on end.
Lineage 2 is the that has a great deal of emphasis on Player versus Player (PvP) and even large armies, and big battle sieges. The nobility, guilds and alliances in the game are very powerful and represent an enormous commitment of time to the game. The world is driven by players that control the economy, own territory, and even issue law.
Gameplay in most MMORPG's begin with the usual similar tasks. You need to develop the strength and intelligence of your character by killing inferior enemies. The character gains more and more skill and it is called "leveling-up." You can complete missions and advance the storyline by completing quests that are given out by non-playing characters (NPC's). You have to figure out how to best use all your weapons and spells. Then you have to acquire even better weapons and armor as the game gets harder as well.
What prevents totally rampant killing is an elaborate Karma system. If someone were to attack another player, the attacker's character name changes color from white to purple. If the person who was attacked does not fight and they are killed, the attacking character's name goes from purple to red and receives negative karma. Red characters are criminals, they are often will be killed by other players on sight. Killing off a red character induces no Karma penalty. As a bonus to bounty hunters the criminal might drop some of their items. When criminals try to enter the towns they get attacked by the guards. Merchants may even refuse to take money and trade with them.
The roads provide some safety for both criminals and normal players. Fewer random monsters accost you on the main roads and it makes it possible to travel farther into the game without restrictions. It is open ended you can play missions and quests or not. If you want to group or join up and play with an army in a siege you can. Or you can go the way of the lonely vagabond and solo.
If you get killed your character can be revived by another member of your party if you have one. If you are soloing and you get killed a number of times the death penalty increases making the character weaker. You have to buy expensive potions and scrolls to remove the death damages. Lineage 2 does not assign death damage to your armor and weapons the way that some games do. It effects your fighting ability and survival.
How well you do in the game depends on how well you use the skills that you learn. There are hundreds of skills in this game. The interfaces allows you to carry many skills, items and actions with you and to customize the set up of how you carry them making it easy and efficient to set up macros and strategies. I prefer this big skill bar that you get in both World of Warcraft and Lineage 2 over the small 8 slot one in Guild Wars.
The game begins with far too few skills to choose from for 19 levels. Apparently if you include all five races and classes, there are over 600 skills in the game. It just takes a very long time to develop and access more skills. Nothing is handed to you. It is easy to compare to Guild Wars, because for every difficult point in Lineage 2, Guild Wars offers the alternative shortcuts and user friendliness. You can level up to 12 or even 20 in Guild Wars much faster and have a more powerful character in a shorter time. The pace is very different.
In addition to normal attacks, spells and curses there are other abilities that involve getting other creatures to do your killing for you. You can summon demons, or even train and learn how to own a pet. Just like everything else in Lineage 2 these things are complex and difficult to pull off. The summoned creatures require a number of crystals, spells and gold to organize and use. The pets require extensive questing for knowledge and the taking of tests which require a score of 100%. If you miss a question on a pet test, you are sent back to do the entire quest over again and take the test over again as well. A serious amount of time and gold could be expended on trying and failing to obtain a pet. Even more outrageous is dragon ownership. The devotion to the game and the amount of gold and hours would be enormous but it is feasible to hatch, train and ride a dragon! My dragon experience in Lineage 2 went like this: I see dragon. I die.
If you are interested in the game beyond soloing as a vagabond you can join a clan. It is necessary to for taking advantage of the scenarios where there are large creatures and beasts. There are quests that require large groups of players to work together strategizing. Only group tactics can penetrate the various towers to grab artifacts which grant ownership of the castles. The scale of these battles is epic, and takes major coordination efforts.
A problem with the scope of siege battles when a hundred or more players are on screen casting, summoning, and attacking it leads to serious lag trouble. The main cities can become extremely laggy at times as it is when there are too many players sitting around selling items. They clog up the towns and the chat screen taking up space and make it hard to navigate.
The sound effects and music were good. There are many engaging tracks to listen to in the game but in general during travel and grinding the music wasn't anything especially noticeable. Wearing headphones was very immersive. The sound effects for casting were superb. The character spoke a slightly different chant for each spell. Background sound effects were good. The buzzing of flies sounded real, there were plenty of bird and water sound effects. There could have been more music throughout the game. On the islands or as you enter the towns dungeons or cave areas scene painting music queues up when you enter.
Gameplay:
When you begin the game you are told to select a primary profession. You can select the hair color and style, the face, and the skin tone that your character will have. To start with you pick out a race such as dark elf, elf, dwarf, orc or human. Then you choose the profession such as mage, or warrior to play as. There is a brief tutorial that gives you access to learn the basic skills. By annihilating scores of minor creatures with the starting equipment that you are given your character will gain experience points. Gradually. In the case of Lineage 2 verrry, gradually. In time the character will gain strength, abilities and magic. The experience of battle racks up points which increase the effectiveness of weapons and skills in battle.
You are left to your own devices fairly shortly, no attempt is made to hold your hand by the game. You have to figure it out on your own. Largely there isn't much to do beyond killing everything in sight until you reach the next significant level where you can access more skills. Get used to hunting because it is what you will be doing for long stretches of levels on end.
Lineage 2 is the that has a great deal of emphasis on Player versus Player (PvP) and even large armies, and big battle sieges. The nobility, guilds and alliances in the game are very powerful and represent an enormous commitment of time to the game. The world is driven by players that control the economy, own territory, and even issue law.
Gameplay in most MMORPG's begin with the usual similar tasks. You need to develop the strength and intelligence of your character by killing inferior enemies. The character gains more and more skill and it is called "leveling-up." You can complete missions and advance the storyline by completing quests that are given out by non-playing characters (NPC's). You have to figure out how to best use all your weapons and spells. Then you have to acquire even better weapons and armor as the game gets harder as well.
What prevents totally rampant killing is an elaborate Karma system. If someone were to attack another player, the attacker's character name changes color from white to purple. If the person who was attacked does not fight and they are killed, the attacking character's name goes from purple to red and receives negative karma. Red characters are criminals, they are often will be killed by other players on sight. Killing off a red character induces no Karma penalty. As a bonus to bounty hunters the criminal might drop some of their items. When criminals try to enter the towns they get attacked by the guards. Merchants may even refuse to take money and trade with them.
The roads provide some safety for both criminals and normal players. Fewer random monsters accost you on the main roads and it makes it possible to travel farther into the game without restrictions. It is open ended you can play missions and quests or not. If you want to group or join up and play with an army in a siege you can. Or you can go the way of the lonely vagabond and solo.
If you get killed your character can be revived by another member of your party if you have one. If you are soloing and you get killed a number of times the death penalty increases making the character weaker. You have to buy expensive potions and scrolls to remove the death damages. Lineage 2 does not assign death damage to your armor and weapons the way that some games do. It effects your fighting ability and survival.
How well you do in the game depends on how well you use the skills that you learn. There are hundreds of skills in this game. The interfaces allows you to carry many skills, items and actions with you and to customize the set up of how you carry them making it easy and efficient to set up macros and strategies. I prefer this big skill bar that you get in both World of Warcraft and Lineage 2 over the small 8 slot one in Guild Wars.
The game begins with far too few skills to choose from for 19 levels. Apparently if you include all five races and classes, there are over 600 skills in the game. It just takes a very long time to develop and access more skills. Nothing is handed to you. It is easy to compare to Guild Wars, because for every difficult point in Lineage 2, Guild Wars offers the alternative shortcuts and user friendliness. You can level up to 12 or even 20 in Guild Wars much faster and have a more powerful character in a shorter time. The pace is very different.
In addition to normal attacks, spells and curses there are other abilities that involve getting other creatures to do your killing for you. You can summon demons, or even train and learn how to own a pet. Just like everything else in Lineage 2 these things are complex and difficult to pull off. The summoned creatures require a number of crystals, spells and gold to organize and use. The pets require extensive questing for knowledge and the taking of tests which require a score of 100%. If you miss a question on a pet test, you are sent back to do the entire quest over again and take the test over again as well. A serious amount of time and gold could be expended on trying and failing to obtain a pet. Even more outrageous is dragon ownership. The devotion to the game and the amount of gold and hours would be enormous but it is feasible to hatch, train and ride a dragon! My dragon experience in Lineage 2 went like this: I see dragon. I die.
If you are interested in the game beyond soloing as a vagabond you can join a clan. It is necessary to for taking advantage of the scenarios where there are large creatures and beasts. There are quests that require large groups of players to work together strategizing. Only group tactics can penetrate the various towers to grab artifacts which grant ownership of the castles. The scale of these battles is epic, and takes major coordination efforts.
A problem with the scope of siege battles when a hundred or more players are on screen casting, summoning, and attacking it leads to serious lag trouble. The main cities can become extremely laggy at times as it is when there are too many players sitting around selling items. They clog up the towns and the chat screen taking up space and make it hard to navigate.
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