Lineage II

[Gef]

Has anybody tried this yet? The english speaking open beta started last week and I have to say i'm more than impressed, I only really started playing yesterday morning and spent the entire day till 1am this morning playing it. The PvP system is identical to UO in the olden days, towns being guarded by NPC's. It was part developed by Richard "Lord British" Gariott and has a LOT of similarities. You have a chance to drop a random item on death which makes taking risks so much more dangerous, but its all good.

Its still quite basic in terms of items and spells, quite a limited choice and the costs dont seem to scale well. Its been out in Korea for quite some time and they are already on the first major patch which we will have for the official launch, this fixes both these problems and improves the graphics engine which is outstanding anyway! The landscapes and characters are stunning..

You can get keys from the official Lineage 2 site, its a 2.5gig download but totally open. You dont even need a credit card, which is a slight downfall as there are so many idiot 10 year olds running round trying to kill people. But they rarely make it past level 5 and are easily killed, which is more than satisfying.

Give it a go, nowt to lose! Appart from maybe a large chunk of your life

 

[Cyradix]

I tried it on friday but the lag was horrible.
They added 2 servers on saturday but the noob zones were filled with 2000 other players....
Will try again later....

 

[Cask]

Read some threads on the official forums by people having trouble getting keys recently. They just brought up 2 more servers and they're all pretty full during US primetime so they might be putting the beta invites on hold. When it's officially launched people will still have to buy a box and get a cd-key as well as the usual subscription charges so that should raise the maturity level to some extent.

I agree with Gef it's pretty basic RPG stuff, kill things, level up, get new spells and gear, kill bigger things, etc. There isn't much chance of customisation or individuality for your characters at least at the lower levels so expect a diablo style game to begin with. The PVP makes it a bit more interesting but the system is so harsh on PKs that you can feel reasonably safe most of the time.

Despite it just being one long grind it is actually quite fun to play for an hour or two when there's nothing on TV. But it'd be pretty hard to reach the top end of the game and make a name for yourself without spending your unemployment benefit on a potty-chair.

Originality - 4/10
Playability - 8/10
Addictiveness - 7/10

 

[Wazzerphuk]

This type of game is gay.

Move on.

 

[leggy]

This type of game is gay.

Move on.

*rub*

*agree*

Managed a whole week of ffxi before becoming severely bored and frustrated. I imagine this will be equally shat.

 

[Louster]

Lineage 2 is insanely, pathetically boring, unless they've majorly altered stuff since going open beta, as I haven't played for a while. Grouping at low levels doesn't give you any benefit to levelling speed, and it takes way longer than most MMORPGs to progess. If you're going to base your entire system around levelling grinds (and what MMORPG doesn't?) at least allow the players to actually feel (or perhaps fool themselves into feeling) like they're making some sort of vaguely meaningful progression. Apart from the fact that it takes a ridiculous amount of time to level, each level brings almost no advantages or customisation beyond "more hitpoints". Perhaps it really does pick up when you get to 20, and you can actually choose a class beyond the retarded "fighter" or "mage" choices. But seriously, the starting levels should be the fastest, and most enjoyable, and it's upon those levels that those who're not clinically insane will decide that this game sucks.

 

[Summo]

... it'd be pretty hard to reach the top end of the game... without spending your unemployment benefit on a potty-chair.

Beautiful!

 

[granny]

Lineage 2? Isn't that the pervy one?

 

[Cyfr]

Second one is lineage2, first looks like WoW to me.

I played it a bit, it seems ok but im waiting for Dragon Empires, as that *should* have more than just a level grind

 

[Louster]

The first one is the Lineage 2 dwarven race select screen.
Edit: er, maybe not the race select screen, having just noticed the HP bars and whatnot, but whatever.

 

[Cyfr]

Oh.. looks totaly different to the elf, human and darkelf style..

 

[Sissyfoo]

Been playing this since last friday and although I enjoyed it at first I am begining to get a bit sick of the insane leveling grind. It is S_L_O_W! The gfx are really purdy and er...the dark elf chicky babes are ... er, well, nice to look at. ~cough~ I haven't had too much problem with PKers so far but the system currently in place is a bit gay; if you are attacked by a PKer and die you will lose an item. This is extremely sucky for lowbies who have to struggle to get their items. :/

When you die, aside from losing an item occasionally, you lose a CRAP load of XP. If you die with about 30% XP into a level you will actually go back a level!! :-o Wtf?! I suppose in a way this is a blessing in disguise as it means you will be able to get more skill points to get more skills but it is fucking annoying to ding a level, die and have to re-ding.

Atm grouping is a waste of time except to chat to friends. There is no apparent gain or loss to soloing and in many cases it seems to be a lot faster which is kinda silly in a mmorpg. :/

I doubt very much I will be buying this game when it goes retail.

I heard that a Korean (surprise) managed to reach level 75 but the grind between 74 and 75 took him 52 days!! :-o They must have the best social services in the f'kin world over there.

 

[Jonaldo]

I was in the Korean beta (not that I speak a word of Korean) and it seemed ok but the levels did seem rather slow and I never seemed to gain anything new as I went along. I realise that mages have to buy all their new spells instead of just getting them but it was still a little disappointing. I reckon it should improve a fair amount before it's released though as all the negative points have already been discussed enough on most forums.