Lineage II is a massive multiplayer online role-playing game for Microsoft Windows, the
second game in the Lineage series.
It is a prequel to Lineage, and is set 150 years before the earlier game.
It has become very popular since its October 1, 2003 launch in South Korea, reporting 1,000,918
unique users during the month of March 2007.
To date, the game has been played by more than 14 million users, mostly based in Asia.
On November 30, 2011 Lineage II adopted a free-to-play model in Lineage II: Goddess
of Destruction, with all game content being free save for "purchasable in-game store items
and packs".
Gameplay
Basic gameplay 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.
As players kill non-player character monsters, they accumulate experience points and skill
points.
As experience points accumulate, the character's level increases, meaning various attributes
of the character are augmented.
Players purchase and then upgrade their character's skills using SP.
Players can play alone or as part of a group to fight monsters and complete quests for
new skills, experience points, and items.
Player versus player is a significant portion of the game.
The game provides many social, political, and economic aspects which are developed through
the community and by the actions, in-game, of single players.
Lineage II features siege warfare like the original.
To make sure PvP stays under control, the design includes a Karma system that provides
negative consequences for killing other players when they are not fighting back.
When being in a chaotic state with a PK count of 5 or more, players have a high probability
of dropping items after being killed.
Classes and Sub/Dual Classes There is currently a large number of classes
for all races combined.
Each race and subsequent class has a set amount of Stat Points already assigned to their class.
Upon completing the quest after reaching level 85, 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.
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.
Upon completing the quests after reaching level 80, a player may add one dual class
to their character.
Heroes are Noblesse characters who have accumulated the most points for their class during competition
in the Grand Olympiad while having a minimum of fifteen matches with at least one win.
There can only be one Hero per class for a maximum of 36 Heroes at any time.
Competing players are limited to their character's main class.
Heroes are able to choose one of the Hero class weapons and receive Hero only abilities;
in addition, they may speak globally to the entire server.
They also receive a glowing aura so that they stand out against other characters.
Pets 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.
Plot The game follows a fictional history through
sets of plots called "Sagas".
There are currently two sagas: "The Chaotic Chronicle" and "The Chaotic Throne".
Large-scale updates/expansions known as "Chronicles" are done every six months, which introduce
new story elements as well as new features and add-ons.
Each chronicle also adds a great deal of new content to the game, including new skills,
quests, areas and items; some chronicles also increased the level cap.
Characters Characters act as a player's avatar within
the game.
Players are afforded up to 7 characters per account.
There are currently six races in the world of Lineage II: the Humans, who are similar
to modern-day humans and who have all-around balanced characteristics; the Elves, who have
superior dexterity, movement, and casting speed, but weaker offense; Dark Elves, who
have higher magic and melee attack capabilities; Orcs, who have higher HP and MP but slower
movement; Dwarves, who are powerful melee attackers and master craftsmen; and Kamael,
who are humanoids with single wings and gender-specific job classes.
Development Hyeong-Jin Kim, the Production team head for
Lineage II, came up with basic concept for the game in early 2000, and development began
in October to November of the same year.
Kim and producer James Bae have stated that their reasons for developing a prequel for
Lineage rather than a sequel is that "Lineage will continue to be updated as a game", and
that "by working on its past, we will not be risking conflict with the direction of
updates that Lineage will take in the future."
According to Kim and Bae, the game's initial subtitle, "The Chaotic Chronicle", was developed
with the intention to "express the large-scale war, strategies, conflicts, and collaborations
that we hope to encourage among players."
Lead Game Designer Raoul Kim said that the reason for rendering Lineage II in 3D was
"simply because most games today are [also] using 3D graphics", and because they deemed
it "more appropriate than 2D for the things that we were going to create."
Developers chose to utilize the Unreal Engine 2 game engine because of its capacity to render
outdoor scenes and its powerful editing features.
According to Game Design team head, Cheol-Woong Hwang, there were different concepts for each
of the race's home villages.
He described the concept for the human village in Talking Island as "ordinary", while the
Elven Village was designed "so as not to lose the natural and royal high-class feeling."
They designed the Dark Elven village based on a "grotesque and serious feeling in order
to express the rough history of these who had been expelled from the Elves."
Content Patches Lineage II has several content patches throughout
its four main stages: The Chaotic Chronicles, The Chaotic Throne, Goddess of Destruction
and Epic Tale of Aden.
The chronicles of Lineage 2 in order are as follows:
Prelude Saga I: The Chaotic Chronicle
Chronicle 1: Harbingers of War Chronicle 2: Age of Splendor
Chronicle 3: Rise of Darkness Chronicle 4: Scions of Destiny
Chronicle 5: Oath of Blood
Interlude Saga II: The Chaotic Throne
The 1st Throne: The Kamael Chaotic Throne 1: The Kamael
Chaotic Throne 1.5: Hellbound
The 2nd Throne: Gracia Chaotic Throne 2.1: Gracia Part 1
Chaotic Throne 2.2: Gracia Part 2 Chaotic Throne 2.3: Gracia Final
Chaotic Throne 2.4: Gracia Epilogue
Chaotic Throne 2.5: Freya
Chaotic Throne 2.6: High Five High Five Part 1
High Five Part 2 High Five Part 3
High Five Part 4 High Five Part 5
Saga III: Goddess of Destruction Chapter 1 - Awakening
Chapter 1.5 - Harmony Chapter 2 - Tauti
Chapter 2.5 - Glory Days Chapter 2.6 - Echo
Chapter 3 - Lindvior
Saga IV: Epic Tale of Aden Chapter 0 - Epeisodion
Chapter 0 - Valiance - Chapter 0 - The Raider
Chapter 1 - Dimensional Strangers Chapter 1 - Ertheia -
Chapter 2 - Infinite Odyssey
NCsoft Publisher Partnerships NCsoft & AsianMedia
Lineage II – South-East Asia or simply L2-SEA is NCsoft's first "Publishing License"
grant for their flagship game to a completely independent company.
NCsoft granted a distribution license to AsianMedia for ArenaNet's Guild Wars for the Philippines.
AsianMedia has been licensed to distribute, publish, and operate Lineage II.
NCsoft's licensing grant initially limits AsianMedia licensing to three countries namely,
the Philippines, Singapore, and Malaysia.
On December 22, 2009 It was announced that the contract between NCsoft and AsianMedia
was not renewed.
All players in L2SEA are now notified and given 30 days before AsianMedia closes down
on all servers in L2SEA.
Reception The overall reception for Lineage II is mixed,
receiving average review scores from various video game rating websites.
Scott Stahl of the The Daily Orange praised the game's graphics and design, though he
also mentioned that the game "quickly degrades into an incredibly tedious and monotonous
process of killing the same monster a thousand different times", and that the character creation
options are "incredibly shallow, with maybe two or three different faces and hair styles
for each type of character."
Andrew Park of GameSpot said that the game "offers either a repetitive grind or a stiff
challenge", and is not suitable for casual gamers who can only play an hour or less per
day.
Allen 'Delsyn' Rausch called the Kamael "an interesting race in that, unlike other Lineage
II races, they focus specifically on the warrior path with high-level class paths segregated
by gender."
The Chronicle 5: Oath of Blood expansion won the Expansion of the Year award at Stratics
Central Editor's Choice Awards 2006, and Lineage II earned an Honorable Mention for the Game
of the Year award.
Sequel On November 8, 2011, NCsoft officially announced
Lineage Eternal as the sequel to Lineage II.
The first gameplay videos debuted at the G-Star 2011 gaming convention in South Korea on November
10, 2011.
Literature Lineage II is one of the MMOs that were subject
to ethnographic study in Constance Steinkuehler and Dmitri Williams's article, 'Where Everybody
Knows Your Name: Online Games as Third Place'.
The authors used the game to try to "explicate the kinds of social and intellectual activities
in which gamers routinely participate, including individual and collaborative problem solving,
identity construction, apprenticeship, and literacy practices".
The Lineage series, along with Asheron's call series, were selected to represent successful
MMO franchise, and the two franchise were used to demonstrate the MMO's capacity to
act as a "third place", where individuals can gather to socialize informally beyond
the workplace and home.
The authors conclude from their findings that MMO's are a new kind of "third place", but
as players become more hardcore and more involved, they no longer function as a "third place".
See also Lineage III
References
External links U.S. official site
EU official site Russian official site
Polish official site Indonesian official site