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Lineage II
Developer(s)	NCSoft E&G Studios
Publisher(s)	NCSoft
Series	Lineage
Engine	Unreal Engine 2.5
Platform(s)	Windows
Release	KOR: October 1, 2003 NA: April 27, 2004 EU: November 19, 2004
Genre(s)	Massively multiplayer online role-playing
Mode(s)	Multiplayer

Lineage II is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) for Windows and the second game in the Lineage series. It is a prequel to Lineage and is set 150 years before the first game. It has become popular since its October 1, 2003 launch in South Korea, reporting 40,027,918 unique users during the month of March 2007. To date, the game has been played by more than 94 million users from all over the world.

Lineage II adopted a free-to-play model in Lineage II: Goddess of Destruction, with all game content being free except for "purchasable in-game store items and packs" in November 2011. A prequel, Lineage 2: Revolution, was released as a mobile game in 2016.

Lineage 2M was launched for the first time in South Korea in November 2019.

Gameplay

In Lineage II, players create a character, choose the race and personalise the face and hair in style, colour, expression and gender.

Every player begins the game in a temple in their character's race's zone (for example: Humans start in "Talking Island" and the Dark Elves in "The Shilen Temple"). Most commonly, the player can choose between a mage and a fighter in each race except Dwarves and Kamael, which can be only fighters.

Battles

A major part of Lineage II gameplay is the combat. Monsters can be found outside of Towns on the hunting fields or deep inside underground dungeons. When the player defeats a monster, their character gets XP and SP to help them level up and learn new skills.

Players can also fight other players through a PvP system.

Death

If a player's character dies in battle, they are given the option to resurrect in the nearest town or village. They can also wait for another player to resurrect them with a Resurrection scroll or spell. Resurrecting in the nearest town costs a fraction of the XP gained, which grows exponentially with level. Resurrection spells and elite scrolls generally restore some of the lost experience.

Plot

The game follows a fictional history through sets of plots called "Sagas". There are currently four sagas: "The Chaotic Chronicle", "The Chaotic Throne", "Goddess of Destruction", and "Epic Tale of Aden". Large-scale updates/expansions are known as "Chronicles" (also known as "The Throne" in The Chaotic Throne, "Chapter" in Goddess of Destruction, and "Episode" in Epic Tale of Aden), which introduce new story elements as well as new features and add-ons. They are released every six months. Each expansion features new skills, quests, areas, and items. Some expansions also increased the level cap.

Characters

Players elect up to seven characters per account. There are currently seven 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; Kamael, who are humanoids with single wings and gender-specific job classes; and Ertheia, female warriors with two completely unique classes, and different quest lines.

Development

Hyeong-Jin Kim, the production team head for Lineage II, came up with the basic concept for the game in early 2000. Development happened in October–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 they did not want to risk a 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 they hoped 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 using 3D graphics", and because they deemed it "more appropriate than 2D for the things that were going to create". Developers chose to use the Unreal Engine 2 game engine because of its ability 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". There are three versions of Lineage II currently available - Classic/Legacy, Aden/Essence and Live/Main.

Reception

Review scores

Publication	Score
GameSpot	6/10
GameSpy
IGN	6.7/10

The overall reception for Lineage II is mixed; the game received average review scores from various video game rating websites. 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. During the 9th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, Lineage II received a nomination for "Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year".

Sequels

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 (Screen) Name: Online Games as 'Third Places'".

Lineage 2 M

Lineage 2 M is a mobile game that aims to replicate the gameplay of Lineage II but for mobile devices. It was released on November 27, 2019.

Prequel

A prequel, Lineage 2: Revolution, was released as a mobile game in 2016.

Sequel

NCsoft officially announced Lineage Eternal as the sequel to the first Lineage in November 2011. The first gameplay videos debuted at the G-Star 2011 gaming convention in South Korea on November 10. NCSoft renamed the game Project TL in 2017 and Throne and Liberty in 2022. It was released in 2023.

Content patches

The Chaotic Chronicles

The Chaotic Throne

Goddess of Destruction (Free2Play)

Epic Tale Of Aden

Deathknight

References

1. Bramwell, Tom (November 19, 2004). "What's New? [date mislabeled "June 10, 2005"]". Eurogamer. Retrieved July 23, 2024.
2. ^ Aihoshi, Richard. "Lineage II Interview". Archived from the original on 2007-07-07. Retrieved 2007-09-21.
3. "Lineage II: awesome views, rave reviews!". MCV. 26 June 2007. Archived from the original on 2012-10-01. Retrieved 2011-04-09.
4. "Goddess of Destruction Has Launched!". 30 November 2011. Archived from the original on 22 April 2012. Retrieved 2 December 2011.
5. "Lineage 2 M surpasses $152m in three months". gamesindustry. 2020-02-12.
6. "Lineage 2". MMOHuts. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2020-12-14.
7. "Races, Classes, and Skills". www.lineage2.com. Archived from the original on 2008-12-12. Retrieved 2008-12-12.
8. "Making Lineage II: 1. Unfolding the Fantasy Land". www.lineage2.com. Archived from the original on 2008-12-19. Retrieved 2008-12-11.
9. "Lineage II Q&A". www.gamespot.com. Archived from the original on 2010-10-23. Retrieved 2008-12-11.
10. "Making Lineage II: 2. Turning the Dream into Reality". www.lineage2.com. Archived from the original on 2008-12-19. Retrieved 2008-12-11.
11. "Lineage II: The Chaotic Chronicle for PC". GameRankings. CBS Interactive. Retrieved June 6, 2018.
12. "Lineage II: The Chaotic Throne - The Kamael for PC". GameRankings. CBS Interactive. Retrieved June 6, 2018.
13. "Lineage II: The Chaotic Chronicle for PC Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved June 6, 2018.
14. ^ Park, Andrew (June 2, 2004). "Lineage II: The Chaotic Chronicle Review". GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on May 14, 2019. Retrieved June 6, 2018.
15. Allen (May 29, 2004). "Lineage II: The Chaotic Chronicle". GameSpy. IGN Entertainment. Archived from the original on January 23, 2013. Retrieved March 1, 2008.
16. Butts, Steve (June 18, 2004). "Lineage 2: The Chaotic Chronicle". IGN. Ziff Davis. Retrieved June 6, 2018.
17. Rausch, Allen 'Delsyn' (December 7, 2007). "Lineage II: The Kamael First Look". GameSpy. IGN Entertainment. Retrieved December 12, 2008.
18. "Editor's Choice Awards 2006: Expansion of the Year". www.stratics.com. 2006. Archived from the original on June 21, 2008. Retrieved 2007-09-11.
19. "Editor's Choice Awards 2006: Game of the Year". www.stratics.com. 2006. Archived from the original on June 21, 2008. Retrieved 2007-09-11.
20. "2006 Awards Category Details Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year". interactive.org. Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. Archived from the original on 6 November 2023. Retrieved 6 November 2023.
21. Steinkuehler, Constance, and Dmitri Williams. "Where Everybody Knows Your (Screen) Name: Online Games as "Third Places". Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication Oct. 2006: 885-909. Print.
22. Joo-won, Chung (8 January 2020). "NCSOFT flying high on earnings hope". Yonhap News Agency. Archived from the original on 28 October 2020. Retrieved 25 October 2020.
23. "NCSOFT's Lineage 2M highest grossing app on Google Play Store in Q1". The Korea Herald. 1 June 2020. Retrieved 25 October 2020.
24. Cowley, Ric (20 November 2017). "Lineage 2: Revolution review - A revolution in MMORPGs or the same old story?". Pocket Gamer. Archived from the original on 2019-10-08. Retrieved 2020-12-14.
25. "Lineage 2: Revolution is all hype with few redeeming qualities". Android Central. 2018-03-08. Archived from the original on 2021-05-16. Retrieved 2020-12-14.
26. "Lineage Eternal Announcement". Archived from the original on 2012-04-11. Retrieved 2011-12-19.
27. GStar Gameplay Videos Debut - First Look at Lineage Eternal

External links

• U.S. official site
• EU official site

• 2003 video games
• 2004 video games
• Massively multiplayer online games
• Cooperative video games
• Innova (video game company) games
• Lineage (series)
• Massively multiplayer online role-playing games
• NCSoft games
• Unreal Engine 2 games
• Video game prequels
• Video games developed in South Korea
• Video games scored by Inon Zur
• Windows games
• Windows-only games