Lineage 2, one year ago
Posted on f13 September 29th 2006, I copypaste it here cause I was looking for it and couldn't find it. Next time it'll be easier.
--
Out of masochism I recently started playing Lineage 2 with some of my rl friends.
We were looking for some evil PvP action and checked Shadowbane. Uh.. no.. my eyes... (did they downgraded the engine and the UI since 2002?)
So we derailed on L2 with the "excuse" of the new server.
Falconeer's short-range perspective on Lineage 2 in September 2006 - Chronicle 5 era:
The CONS:
- The grind is as bad as you think
- The grind is actually way badder than you think
- The grind is insane
- Quests are a joke
- The colour palette, except for player characters, is a little too medieval (green, brown, gray. That's it)
- The world could use some more points of interest. Or just some without the more.
- You move so slowly. Oh soooo slowly. And there are no mounts for players with a life. Although you could get one if you are a cultist of the Lineage 2 church and live your life along. To meet your friends or go to dungeons and so on you have to walk for hours or pay some VERY expensive (at least at lower levels) teleports. You are "invited" to explore the world in a first generation of mmorpg fashion. Actually I like that, but I am pretty sure no one else does.
- Point and click could be bearable, while targeting is an electronic nightmare, especially during raids or when mobs chase your healer.
- The interface is close to useless. Another joke.
- TO get your "final" class you have to level to 40 (forty). That will take you between 15 and 60 days. Before that you are a close to a generic dummy. Sword, dagger or cast. Not much more than that, no matter the 16 subclasses. That hurt replayabilty. Who in hell would reroll a char when you have to play for more than a month just to get to the first level of your true class? (and that's where the grind gets REALLY evil...)
- There's close to no loot. Mobs drop money and some crafting materials. Anything else is as rare as Magnolia-like frograin.
- Money are EVERYTHING. THey are actually more important than level to a certain degree. And that means BOTS and lots of ubertwinked players that you know bought money on eBay.
- Bots
- Farmers
- Bots
- Farmers
- Bots
- Bots
- Farmers
- FarmerBots
- more Bots
- more Bots
- ok stop Bots...
The PROS:
- It's PvP oriented, definitely. When you die you lose XP and CAN LOSE one of your item. Equipped too, uber super fabled epic too. There's no insurance here. And you can loot that stuff too, of course.
- The character visuals are still unbeaten in my opinion. Gorgeous. Little stiff, a bit robotic, but you'll get great screenshots :)
- The world, although bland and empty for the most part, sports some nice vistas and the whole thing really looks medieval, not fantasy. Cities, shops, buildings and everything it's not bland empty forest looks great. Score for me.
- Sieges look fun (too soon for me tho)
- 31 classes are the higher number in any mmorpg for all I know, and they fill their roles very well. Plus all the classes got some rebalancing after Chronicle 5 so now they "are supposed" to beat each other according to a Rock-Paper-Scissor mechanic. Has to be verified. Oh, you can't walk through players and mobs. They are all, mmh, very solid. Griefers love to corner you.
- Servers are always full, in a positive way. The world, actally all of them, feels alive. And I especially love the no-auction house policy. That's not user friendly but it's fun. You have to browse the market stalls and looks for the best deals. Again, UO nostalgia. VENDOR BUY!
- Clan structure has just been revamped. The Clan management is fascinating and the whole "politics" part of the game is apparently well served by the clan system, clan wars mechanics and new alliance rules.
- Fighting other guilds over a (unique) Guild Hall can't be boring.
- The interface is useless, as stated before, but elegant.
- The mechanic surrounding the "enchantment" of weapons and armours is EVIL to the core (everytime you try an enchantment your weapon could get stronger and gain a glow, or get broken and trashed), but addictive. It's like Russian Roulette in a videogame. Too bad people who buy eBay money screw this.
- That "old mean feeling" from preTrammel UO. You go out, you watch your shoulders, you get chased, you get ganked, you gank back.. you lose your uber Armor, you loot back a Super Staff of looting. All that eclosed in a "political setting" where you can wage war on opposing guilds, threaten them to give your mercenary support to their enemies on the next siege, exact tributes from nearby villages and things like that. Some of us love that.
- Franz, a new server, just started. We are there, and we get into this just for that. a "new world" with castles still to be taken and economy still to be screwed.
Bottom line:
This game requires friends. RL friends are even better.
If you manage to play with Teamspeak, chatting and joking while doing the grind part, then you can survive L2 to the point where things *can get* interesting. Another good tip is to use the phone. I recently discovered that I love to grind while I am on the phone. It's just like drawing mindlessly or simply dangling my slippers... it's so automatic and catatonic that it's a perfect subconscious activity. So whenever you pick up the phone, start L2 and grind. It works, really.
It helps the fact that about 6 "expansions" are out for this game. Every chronicle added lots of things and they are definitely there. Lots of "minigames" and other special mechanics introduced with every update (the Manor syste, although often exploited, is a very interesting and unique one) definitely add to the content side of Lineage 2. So maybe they are not so honest when they say "6 expansions", but those 6 chronicles could count easily as 3 EQ2 retail ones.
But that said, Lineage 2 is too grindy and too money driven (meaning too bot infested and eBay friendly) for being seriously considered as fun. It has "aspects" that are unique and very fun. I am just not sure that there's actually room to see those if you are not really into it with a bunch of friends to ease the pain.
--
Out of masochism I recently started playing Lineage 2 with some of my rl friends.
We were looking for some evil PvP action and checked Shadowbane. Uh.. no.. my eyes... (did they downgraded the engine and the UI since 2002?)
So we derailed on L2 with the "excuse" of the new server.
Falconeer's short-range perspective on Lineage 2 in September 2006 - Chronicle 5 era:
The CONS:
- The grind is as bad as you think
- The grind is actually way badder than you think
- The grind is insane
- Quests are a joke
- The colour palette, except for player characters, is a little too medieval (green, brown, gray. That's it)
- The world could use some more points of interest. Or just some without the more.
- You move so slowly. Oh soooo slowly. And there are no mounts for players with a life. Although you could get one if you are a cultist of the Lineage 2 church and live your life along. To meet your friends or go to dungeons and so on you have to walk for hours or pay some VERY expensive (at least at lower levels) teleports. You are "invited" to explore the world in a first generation of mmorpg fashion. Actually I like that, but I am pretty sure no one else does.
- Point and click could be bearable, while targeting is an electronic nightmare, especially during raids or when mobs chase your healer.
- The interface is close to useless. Another joke.
- TO get your "final" class you have to level to 40 (forty). That will take you between 15 and 60 days. Before that you are a close to a generic dummy. Sword, dagger or cast. Not much more than that, no matter the 16 subclasses. That hurt replayabilty. Who in hell would reroll a char when you have to play for more than a month just to get to the first level of your true class? (and that's where the grind gets REALLY evil...)
- There's close to no loot. Mobs drop money and some crafting materials. Anything else is as rare as Magnolia-like frograin.
- Money are EVERYTHING. THey are actually more important than level to a certain degree. And that means BOTS and lots of ubertwinked players that you know bought money on eBay.
- Bots
- Farmers
- Bots
- Farmers
- Bots
- Bots
- Farmers
- FarmerBots
- more Bots
- more Bots
- ok stop Bots...
The PROS:
- It's PvP oriented, definitely. When you die you lose XP and CAN LOSE one of your item. Equipped too, uber super fabled epic too. There's no insurance here. And you can loot that stuff too, of course.
- The character visuals are still unbeaten in my opinion. Gorgeous. Little stiff, a bit robotic, but you'll get great screenshots :)
- The world, although bland and empty for the most part, sports some nice vistas and the whole thing really looks medieval, not fantasy. Cities, shops, buildings and everything it's not bland empty forest looks great. Score for me.
- Sieges look fun (too soon for me tho)
- 31 classes are the higher number in any mmorpg for all I know, and they fill their roles very well. Plus all the classes got some rebalancing after Chronicle 5 so now they "are supposed" to beat each other according to a Rock-Paper-Scissor mechanic. Has to be verified. Oh, you can't walk through players and mobs. They are all, mmh, very solid. Griefers love to corner you.
- Servers are always full, in a positive way. The world, actally all of them, feels alive. And I especially love the no-auction house policy. That's not user friendly but it's fun. You have to browse the market stalls and looks for the best deals. Again, UO nostalgia. VENDOR BUY!
- Clan structure has just been revamped. The Clan management is fascinating and the whole "politics" part of the game is apparently well served by the clan system, clan wars mechanics and new alliance rules.
- Fighting other guilds over a (unique) Guild Hall can't be boring.
- The interface is useless, as stated before, but elegant.
- The mechanic surrounding the "enchantment" of weapons and armours is EVIL to the core (everytime you try an enchantment your weapon could get stronger and gain a glow, or get broken and trashed), but addictive. It's like Russian Roulette in a videogame. Too bad people who buy eBay money screw this.
- That "old mean feeling" from preTrammel UO. You go out, you watch your shoulders, you get chased, you get ganked, you gank back.. you lose your uber Armor, you loot back a Super Staff of looting. All that eclosed in a "political setting" where you can wage war on opposing guilds, threaten them to give your mercenary support to their enemies on the next siege, exact tributes from nearby villages and things like that. Some of us love that.
- Franz, a new server, just started. We are there, and we get into this just for that. a "new world" with castles still to be taken and economy still to be screwed.
Bottom line:
This game requires friends. RL friends are even better.
If you manage to play with Teamspeak, chatting and joking while doing the grind part, then you can survive L2 to the point where things *can get* interesting. Another good tip is to use the phone. I recently discovered that I love to grind while I am on the phone. It's just like drawing mindlessly or simply dangling my slippers... it's so automatic and catatonic that it's a perfect subconscious activity. So whenever you pick up the phone, start L2 and grind. It works, really.
It helps the fact that about 6 "expansions" are out for this game. Every chronicle added lots of things and they are definitely there. Lots of "minigames" and other special mechanics introduced with every update (the Manor syste, although often exploited, is a very interesting and unique one) definitely add to the content side of Lineage 2. So maybe they are not so honest when they say "6 expansions", but those 6 chronicles could count easily as 3 EQ2 retail ones.
But that said, Lineage 2 is too grindy and too money driven (meaning too bot infested and eBay friendly) for being seriously considered as fun. It has "aspects" that are unique and very fun. I am just not sure that there's actually room to see those if you are not really into it with a bunch of friends to ease the pain.
posted by Drew the Falconeer at 9:43 PM
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