Customer Reviews

Lineage 2: The Chaotic Chronicle

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(16)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

Like anyone, I am very leary to join up with any MMORPG. It's just really tough to justify forking over money every month to play a video game, unless it's really amazing. Unfortunately, my experiences with MMORPG's have been less then stellar. My last disastrous experience was with Horizons. That game was the worst managed, least fun game I have ever played. So, needless to say I was a little jaded when it came to MMORPG's. I've played World of Warcraft, City of Heroes, Guild Wars, Everquest, etc., etc., so I am very familiar with the world of MMORPG's. Having dilligently read all the gaming reviews, scoured the forums, and porused through the newsgroups, I came to the conclusion that Lineage II was not a very good game. So, I didn't buy it.

2 months later, I'm forced to buy this game(I made my buddy buy a game earlier in the year, so I was on the hook). I thought I would play for a couple of token "I really tried to enjoy it" weeks and then call it quits. I was wrong.


Introduction/Graphics


The first thing you will notice is the AMAZING graphics and scenery. LII is still using the Unreal 2 engine, and they really have it wired. It's hard to believe that this is the same old tired graphics engine that has been around for such a long time. It really shows off when it is night time, and there is a full moon out. NCSoft will display a wild and imaginative skyline that literally takes your breath away.

In the same token, they do have one major flaw in the graphics dept. and it is terribly silly. The Time of Day Transitions from Night to Day and vice versa are awful. I don't know if they do that on purpose for some reason, but it is such a tragedy to ruin what is otherwise a wonderfully rich and beautiful world. You'll be standing somewhere in the middle of a hot and sunny day, then BAM, it's midnight. Literally no transition from dusk to dawn, and so on and so forth.

Besides the knock on daily transitions, their fighting graphics are spectacular. Each spell, sword swing, staff smash, has amazing effects to go with it. You can tell that NCSOFT really spent a lot of time emphasizing good combat graphics, and it shows.

Audio

The sound is great. It has a wide range enviromental noises that change smoothly from each appropriate area. Having great enviromental affects can make a game so much more fun and have a level of realism that just can't be achieved without it. It really immerses a player into that world, and I love it. The character affects associated it with all character actions is good as well. I won't say great, because I can't think of one item that really caught my attention enough to remember.

Gameplay

This is tough to judge with an MMORPG. The nature of the beast requires a certain amount of level grinding that just can't be avoided, which just becomes a second job after a while. That aside I will point out some positives and negatives I found. The fighting in the game is fun, and the character menu is your standard RPG layout. Complete with inventory, hotbars, XP and Magic meters, so on and so on. The macro system is average, and purposely so. If anyone has ever played an MMORPG that can be exploited using the macros, it can really suck.

The questing is a little weak, but it does improve with every new edition that is published with LII, currently on Chronicle 3 for this review.


This game allows for full PvP (Player vs. Player) action, which means that other real world players can go and kill you if they want for no reason at all. This adds a dicey element to the game that you just can't get with a non-PvP game. Have you ever caught yourself playing a online game and thought, "Man, I would love to kill that annoying turd that keeps mouthing off, or keeps getting my squad killed." Now you can. It feels really good to crush someone who has been talking trash for 2 days, way too good. On the flip side, it's really devastating when you get owned by some other character when you know it's probably some 10 year old kid who just schoooled you. This aspect of the game really narrows the focus of who would enjoy this game, as it really appeals to the hard core gamer. I know some people who will not play PvP simply because it is too stressful. I love it. The system is designed with a karma system so it's not a total free for all, as their are penalties for just killing everyone randomly all the time, but you can agree to fight with another person with no penalites at all; or just make a character that is pure killer, that says damn the consequences, and kills all that stand in his path. This part of the game in my opinion is one of it's best highlights.

On the flip side, there is a clan and alliance system that is pretty good. The clan system is pretty robust, and does have some major benefits to be in a high level, powerful clan. Clans have alliances with other clans, which basically makes them even stronger. These alliances can setup castle sieges, where they siege the local castle, to vie for control of that area. If you belong to a clan that holds a castle, you make buko bucks and gain tons of privelages that non-castle holders have.

The other advantage that clans have is they are great to setting up parties to go out and level with. This is the fastest way to level your character, get gear, and overall have a great time. Lineage II does a great job with their clan/alliance system, which only improves with every new Chronicle.

Negatives:

There are some major negatives that are felt pretty deeply in this game. The first issue is the money making problem. It is really difficult to make money in this game, and money is the key to this whole game. Want to level faster? Buy some goodies that will help you kill things quicker. Want to make your guy stronger and kill things quicker? Buy the nicer gear. This formula is not unique, but is absurdly lopsided in this game. You would have to spend 24 hours straight 7 days a week for 1 month to get enough money to buy 1 piece of top of the line gear for a level 20 and lower characert; and guess what? by the time that happens you would be level 40. It is very disproportionate, and very frustrating.

Which dove tails into the other major problem of this game. Ebayers/Money Buying. Since it is so difficult to make money in the game, it has sprung up a multi-million dollar industry where companys' sole reason in life is to sell you the video game money(adena) in exchange for your cold hard cash. Yes, that's right, you can spend your hard earned dough to buy your video game character that armor you've been dying to get,or that sweet sword you know would make your life so much easier. Don't let anyone fool you either, as it happens all the time all day every day, and most people won't admit it.

Ebayers are people who just skip the whole game leveling process and buy a pre-played account, so they can have that uber character with none of the effort. This happens a lot as well, and is very, very annoying(Moms and Dads, please stop giving your kids money to spend off your Credit Card!!!)

Finally one of the worst thing that goes on is botting. This is where people use a 3rd party program to "play" the game for them. It essentially fully automates their characters to kill non-stop without resting or dying. This is very prevalent in Lineage II, despite some lackluster efforts by NCSoft. Their is a petition process you can go through to turn in these botters, but NCSoft's response is mediocore at best, with a very small percentage of botters ever getting banned.

These are all major issues, but they are not unique in LineageII, as they are prevalent in all MMORPG's, so take it for what it's worth. Although, the botting in Lineage II is pretty bad, much worse then some other games then I have played.

Overall

I have been playing for 9 months straight,almost every day and I love this game. It is designed for the hard core gamer in mind, and is not for the weak at heart. The PvP makes it very interesting and keeps you on your toes. While the clan system adds depth and enjoyment on different levels. I recommend this game to anyone who has come from playing any other PvP based MMORPG, or who is interested in a hard core fantasy world. I dont' recommend this game to anyone who is impatient or does not have lots of time to spare, as this game will need a tremendous amount of both. This is a very serious game which requires huge amount of dedication. These games are designed for people who are supposed to be playing it every day for hours at a time, for years at a time. It is not designed to be beaten within a month, or to MAX your character out in 2 months. I have been playing video games before their was any graphics, purely word based games (Zork, Hitchikers Guide..), and I can see why a lot of people do not like this game. It is truly designed for the VERY hard core gamer. If you are an old school gamer with years and years of gaming under your belt, and love the RPG genre, you will love this game. Don't get me wrong, as I really HATE the negatives (botters, ebayers), and the lack of a decent questing system, but unlike Horizons, the game gets much better with each Chronicle; and since we are only in Chronicle 3 out of 12 we can expect some great things to come.....

Lineage 2...it really depends. If you're looking for a game that's going to provide you with another way to live your life, tons of ways to waste time, etc etc then Lineage probably isn't it. In short, Lineage is an action rpg of MMORPGs. The game is about the action. Your quests...are usually to kill things. The crafting you do...is to create more weapons and armor. You will spend a great deal of time just killing everything you see, and as many have noted the game is geared for open PvP, not as an add-on, but as a key element.
When you consider all this, thats where my review title comes in. You'll probably notice if you truly play a lot of ORPGs (i.e. more than just the american ones) that the asian ones, except for the japanese ones, tend to focus a lot on the action and PvP. well....that's lineage right there. yeah the game can be a big grind, yea the quests aren't going to have you doing much more than kill a lot of things. What about "the game is all about the action" is so hard to understand??? kidding. the point is it would seem a lot of the more mainstream MMORPG players in the US at least don't really like this design. thats not good or bad, just the way it is. If you're like that, if you're expected something that you can cook, and fish, and do all that stuff other than fight, then yeah, Lineage probably isn't for you. If you're the type that wants to fight, fight lots, and fight other players; its more than Lineage 2 "might appeal more to you". Frankly, Lineage 2 was MADE for you. The "action MMORPGer" is the audience Lineage targets and no other. Its really as simple as that.
My personal opinion is its pretty good. but y'know what??? i like Guild Wars...i think RYL has potential (when most western reviewers gave it horrid reviews). point is, that game style doesn't bug me.

I thought the game was kind of interesting for the first half hour. After the first 8 hours of play you actually get to attack some real enemies, but you're stopped by someone with the name angellovekiss killing everything in sight.
rang rang you go ok, says the player. Rang means go away, rudely in Mandarin Chinese. There are more chinese money farmers and ebay sellers in the game than actual players playing it.
The game managers (in game support staff) say adena (game money) selling has "zero tolerance" but also that their action to the selling "depends on the severity of the offense."
The point is, NCsoft is getting $15 a month from the Chinese adena sellers just like every other user and they wouldn't want to alienate half their customers by enforcing their rules. A few other things: Korea's server only allows Korean players. Japan's server only allow Japanese players. Taiwan's server only allows Taiwanese players. North American server allows everyone, including the Chines that were banned from all other servers. Oh, and look up what "cao ni ma" means. No swearing allowed says the GMs.
Stay away from this one guys. NCsoft is milking the legit players and the money sellers.

First of all, I have been playing the game for about 1.5 years, since it went retail. With some breaks due to travel and job and so on, I turn on the game pretty much every day, which makes it roughly 30-35 hours of gaming per week on average. The game became my only hobby and after taking care of my family I spend the evening hours in front of the computer playing Lineage 2.

I read the other reviews, which mostly agree on one thing: this game requires insane amount of time if you would like to be a high level player. Time is everything in this game. If you have time its easy to make money and consequently gear up (contrary to what the others said), to gain levels and also to develop your skills in a Player vs Player (PvP) situations.

You start with your character being at level 1 equipped with very basic skills. To achieve level 5 when you get your first upgrade of skills is a matter of minutes. For every monster you kill you gain a certain amount of experience and for every level you need a certain amount of experience to advance to the next level. With advancement you gain more hitpoints, mana and develop some attributes of your character. The total amount of experience needed to upgrade your level grows exponentially. While you can make from level 1 to level 40 in 1 week of heavy playing (given you can borrow some gear), it will take you a week to progress from 40-48 with heavy playing again. The level cap is currently set to 75, it takes approximately 65-70 hours of gaming to make that level 75 from 74. At every death you loose experience (which can extend the time to level) and you have a chance of dropping gear as well.

The PvP system is unique - you can engage in a fight with others at any time and everywhere except for the peace zones (towns). If the other player does not respond to you when you initiate the fight you can still kill him, but you get a penalty for that (karma) - its called Player Kill (PK). When your character has any karma other players are free to attack you without getting a penalty (karma) themselves. When you die you also loose certain amount of karma, which you can loose as well by killing monster. By having a high PK count you have a higher chance of loosing gear when dying with having karma on your character.

I find the PvP aspect of the game very exciting. You need to have your nerves for this, as PvP can happen any time and if you get attacked by more than 1 person or a powerful mage you die really fast. Also the grinding (gaining experience) is fun, as you can do it with your friends in groups, use a voice chat engine and the time just flies away.

There are a ton of other things to do, there is great social interraction in game, you can trade, make items, enchant items to make them stronger, raise pets, do quests, kill raid bosses, siege castles. Overall the game is balanced in a way that there is no best class and there is a lot to do. The game is very much geared towards co-operation between people and various classes to achieve any objectives.

The Lineage 2 world is huge and is getting expanded by every new Chronicle (free upgrade of the game). Every new Chronicle brings new content, improvements and further rebalancing of the game.

If you are a hardcore gamer you will love it. If you dont have the time dont even start it. I love it.

I've played the beta for 4 days first off before I begin I'd like to make it clear that the beta is missing features that will be in the full game which has already been released. So my review will be primarily about my experience in the beta release.

The author who wrote "Played Beta...Boring Boring Boring" makes some good points. Leveling up takes a very very long time if you are a spell caster (wizard) before you hit level 14 it is very hard for you to kill anything that runs as fast as you do because spells take along time to caste there's 2 time delays the time first is casting the spell basically your character says a few words waves her hands and the spell cast animation takes place secondly after you cast the spell you can't recast it until the time restriction is over don't confuse casting time and time restriction they are two different things two different countdowns. So you're stuck with killing stone soldiers or guardians cuz they walk a lot slower than you. Wizards are support characters you basically have to get a party with fighters and wizards, wizards heal fighters you will do a lot of healing. But you don't get anything for helping your team mates any XP so you get jacked there. A lot of the wizard spells are support spells for example "mighty" which increases some attack for a fighter or the person you cast it on and you can't cast it on yourself which is again stupid.

Fighters are the hack and slash guys if you like cool swords cool armor this class is for you, you are always face to face with an enemy and you'll usually have a spell caster healing you as you fight. Low level fighters can kill a variety of enemies unlike the spell casters they are not as limited in what they can kill. Fighters cannot heal themselves so you rely on spell casters to heal you or expensive and ineffective potions. This is the developers way of encourage partying with other players which is fine but as a support character I'd like some credit for healing =P

Classes are mostly the same for human, elves, and dark elves, dwarfs are a bit different and I didn't get to play them.

Character customization is very limited the spell selection from what I hear is very limited if you're used to playing Neverwinter Nights you'll feel very constrained in Linage2. I'm hoping they will add more as the game progresses and new content is added. You can't really increase dexterity, strength, and intelligence like in NWN again limited character customization. You don't have too many options when customizing your characters physical appearance there is a very limited amount of hair styles, facial expressions etc... so don't be surprised if you see 20 people who look exactly like you in the game in the same area as you.

There's a lot of running most of your time is spent running too much of your time is spent running. I hear you can get horses and things that move faster than you to ride on when the official game is released. You'll spend at least 5 minutes running from point A to point B. The game is mostly point and click, object collision sucks you can't tell your character to follow the path so if the path turns and you don't tell your character to turn they keep running straight. You can't dodge things either if someone has you targeted and they cast a spell or shoot an arrow it's a guaranteed hit the only thing that varies is the amount of damage done but that's usually based on your armor or magic spells you have protecting you. Even if you run behind a tree or rock you still get hit which I hope they will declare a bug (refer to stone golems/soldiers). Disconnecting from the game, if you disconnect in battle your most likely dead, if you disconnect in a field of monsters the next time you logon your most likely dead. Creatures spawning next to you if you are in a battle will most likely attack you so that means you have to deal with 2 enemies. Quests are plentiful but you have to be at the right level or you'll get slaughtered.

So what's cool about the game, the graphics very good you'd better have a half decent PC machine you'll spend much of your time in overhead view looking at your character from top down as they run to avoid chugging. There are lots of good weather effects, it tries to simulate a real world which is nice I have yet to see thunder/lightning and rain or snow. The time and detail spent into the architecture of buildings is again very eye candy, excellent character detail. The ability to setup your own shops is neat kind of like your very own ebay.

I'd like to see a lot more character customization seeing 10 spell casters with all the same spells is boring same goes for the fighters.

If any of the game developers are reading this, this goes for all of them you should always offer a free trial. Who is going to pony up the cash for a fee based game they have never played?

This game is very hard, especially when you are starting your first character. It helps to have or make a friend who is willing to help get you started. You have to commit a lot of time leveling and learning the game. The design of each character class encourages working together in parties, or clans so that each addition will complement the group. IE forming a party with damage dealers whose purpose is obvious, tanks to attract the brunt of enemy attack, healers to keep the group alive and buff everyone up, and dwarves to scavenge the monsters and craft items. Once you hit level 40 and go through your 2nd class change, PVP is a blast. You can safely go the the Arenas and fight without penalty, and practice PVP, or you can take a crack at someone who has it coming. When in a clan, you have to become committed as a group in order to level the clan by completing special quests. Clans can form aliances, or go to war against eachother so that two clans formally at war can kill eachother anytime anywhere without the penalty of bad kharma. The castle sieges are pretty awesome too. Yes, leveling can get a little repetative, though I find a few beers while your hacking the grind makes it a little more tolerable. That's the part that seperates the tourists from the hardcore, and the price you will pay to become powerful and respected.

What is Lineage 2? Take the greifers and fanatical gamers from every other MMO, and put them in one world where you can kill people in almost any region, and sometimes without consequence. L2 is not meant for casual gamers, and it's not meant for "Care Bears." It is a world where you cannot back down from a fight, or you will be eaten alive. If World of Warcraft seems like a game you'd love to play, this is not the game for you.

However, it has the worst support I have ever seen. Here is a letter I sent to NCSoft's PR. 2 days after that, they announced that they will have GMs reading the message boards 24/7 and replying. I doubt that will do anything. Here's the letter:

I am writing to inform you of the abysmal service provided by the North American Lineage II team. I have played many MMOs, and I understand there are technical problems for some time after launch, and will not mention them here. However, I have never seen such indifferent GMs and support staff.

The first line of GMs are close to useless. They are condescending, and do not read the initial message at all. In every case, all they finally say is that they will send the request to senior GMs and end the message. I never get the usual "Is there anything else I can help you with?" The conversation is immediately ended so I must repetition and wait the 3 or 4 hours for another GM if I have multiple issues. However, not all GMs are so quick to end the conversation. Others shout "PKer! Get him!" when someone who has turned red is
near me.

As I said above, my requests are almost always sent to senior GMs. I have only once been contacted by a senior GM, only to be told my request would be sent to an even more senior GM. That was the only one that I ever heard from. In other cases, I have waited over a month and have not heard from a senior GM. I recently enquired about some of them, and received a reply in which the support representative have obviously not read my e-mail carefully, and had not read the original support e-mail at all. I was even asked for information (account name, etc.) that the support representative had sent me in the same e-mail.

A glance at the message board since launch will show complaints of unresponsive GMs, duplicate CD Keys sold in retail, and account suspension without cause. The message board GMs have replied to virtually none of them, so the customers are left with no information.

The information for updates is vague, if not non-existant. For instance, the details for the Chronicle 1 patch, which had been out in Korea for months, was not given to us until a day before the update actually occurred. And those details were incomplete, and in some cases wrong.

And then there is the biggest problem of all: "Adena Farmers." In case you are unaware of this issue, there are several groups of people, mostly based in China, who continuously kill easy enemies for lots of money, and sell it on e-bay. Normally this would not be a problem, except it clearly says in the agreement that no in-game items my be traded for real money. These Adena Farmers are excessively aggressive, have exploited "delevelling", and take control of vital areas of the game, and thus making these areas unplayable. One GM said it was difficult to find the "bosses" of these rings. I find that hard to believe. Their naming schemes are very simple. Lets say their name is Unattainable (this is one of the infamous on the Erica server). The "boss" will either be named Unattainable001 or UnattainableBoss. Members of this ring will
have the name Unattainable002, 003, etc. The GMs have done nothing to stop them. They have been active since open-beta, and they are still thriving, and a search of e-bay will show more "adena" being sold than most players will ever see in game.

While there are a decent number of subscribers right now, in the 4th Quarter of this year, Everquest 2 and World of Warcraft, along with some lesser known MMOs will be released. Lineage 2 can be a fun game, but soon there will be alternatives with support and GMs who seem to care and fix problems.

I've played this game since the beginning of open beta, and I have three characters between levels 20-35. Despite all the time I've invested in this game I can say I will probably cancel my subscription.
Many people have already pointed out flaws, here are my reasons for disliking the game. First, remember I like to play solo when my guildmates are at work/offline. Second, I play to relax, not stress ^^ :

1. Adena (money) farmers. There are people in the game who speak little to no English who are there to farm adena and basically, kill you/force you to leave by griefing tactics, and stealing your monsters and cash drops. The sad thing is they are very well equipped and often gang up on the solo adventurer/smaller group. What's really pathetic, is due to the pvp system if you attempt to bring in a larger group to fight them, many of your own partners might kill you for items and gear you could drop. Which brings me to my next point ...

2. Your gear is your life. Lose your weapon/expensive armour in an unfortunate death, and you're really out of luck. This is a game where expensive item drops are rare, and monster cash drops are usually only in the 'couple of hundred adena' range. Not much help if you just lost your 1.5 million adena sword when a farmer/monster killed you. This 'game' is a stressful money/xp grind, and there's ALOT of greed.

3. I hear L2 has one of the worst xp grinds out there, but can't confirm it myself. I wouldn't complain about it really, except for the fact that any place my level 30+ characters could realistically gain xp solo, is completely infested with farmers.

This game was great in open beta when people were working on getting their characters leveled up. This game is STILL fun when you see your work rewarded in quicker levels earlier on, and when you meet people who haven't been jaded by the sad state of customer service in-game, the bots and the farmers.

If you can deal with these problems as well as the numerous ones stated before my post, then you've got yourself a good-looking game. If not, look elsewhere. I'm going to.

Lineage one was a game i much enjoyed. The graphics, though not 3-d and otherwise unspectacular, were sufficient to play, the gamestyle was nice, the PK system was the best i have ever encountered. The spells were also cool, and though the classes were misbalanced, the game was overall very fun to play.
Unfortunately, Lineage II falls short of this standard, mainly because in an effort to keep powergamers playing for an extended period of time before they got to the "max", they decided to completely ignore casual gamers.
That is to say that up until level 10, the game is enthralling. The levels come quick and relativley easily, the gameplay is fun, and your character seems to advance and to coexist in a seamless gameworld with other people. The variation in character graphics, though irritating (and no, i don't consider six hairstyles a "plethora" of graphical options), is really something i'd come to expect from Lin 1 and so didn't worry about.
The quests are nice, albeit often not worth the effort, and the gameworld is fairly immersive, if repetitive. The map system is useful, and the players online tend (after swearing you out a little) to be helpful.

Unfortunately there is no useful trade system aside from yelling over shout or trade, and there are far too many scammers for you to reliably use the "buy" and "sell" function "shops". The PK system, which is similar to linage 1 except that you can't go lawful, "rewards" you for PKing by having you lose at least twice the experience you caused someone else to lose just for killing them. (even if they were being... uncooth.) This leads to one person killstealing, so the person they're killstealing tries to killsteal them back because neither one of them wants to kill the other (they might go chaotic), and it ends up as a duel of "how much of an idiot can i act like to get someone else to go away".

But this isn't my main problem with the game.
The real problem is this: After level ten, you think "gad, this leveling is getting irritating". But you perservere to 15. After 15, you begin to realize that leveling is just getting worse, and worse, and more repetitive, and more repetitive, until you've just realized that you have to kill 600 of the same monster just to level and that there's no real point in grouping because it just causes you to get levels slower and half the money.

Not to mention equipment is insanely expensive and the only way to get money is a) get really lucky (1/1000 chances of getting items) or do quests over... and over... and over... and so on...

So honestly, i have my character. Honestly, i'll pay to play. But only until the next game comes out, and then i'm jumping off the boat like a rat off a plague ship...

Great game. Many great things in it. I like the more realistic graphics than in WoW. politics are intense in this game, so it takes some guts to play with it, and join the many clans and alliances in the game. The game has it's own story line and mythology, that goes well with the game. Lvling is slow after 35, but it's awesome to participate in the castle sieges and see the many hundreds of people fighting it out on the battle fields for a huge castle and control of the local economy. Yeah sure they have farmers, but what mmorpg doesn't? it's really a lot of fun, and the PK (player kill) is quite nasty because it becomes a matter of political involvement but it's extremely realistic, much more so than WoW ever could be. WoW is too much of a fantasy that goes great with the Warcraft series that i love, but Lineage2 sets it's own standard.