Lineage II

Lineage II will be as revolutionary as "EverQuest" was for its time, and we are looking at the benchmark that all other MMORPGs (retail and free) will have to hold a candle against.

There have been a few MMOs that have tried to build stable gameplay structures based on universal PvP/guild play system -- "Shadowbane" being the most high-profile example. Almost none, however, have done it as well as Lineage 2.

Pretty, very pretty but PvE gameplay is one long level grind.

Once its player-versus-player elements are fully implemented, Lineage II could become the tense, harsh, and Darwinian experience it's supposed to be. At this point, it's basically an occasionally chaotic, and aesthetically attractive level-grind.

Depending on how you look at it, Lineage II offers either a repetitive grind or a stiff challenge. In any case, the game isn't suited for more casual players who may only have time to play for 30 minutes to an hour.

So that's L2 "PvP" for you -- seemingly dangerous at first, but then a disappointment and apparent breeding ground for grief and exploitation. Under any other name, it would just be consensual duels. And other companies were doing those competently years ago. The catch is that this is supposed to be the main draw of this modern MMOG. Without it, there's nothing but a steady stream of intolerably slow-moving experience bars and arrogant, immoral players.

For anyone new to the genre, this isn’t the best place to start due to the technical flaws and PvP griefing. Even veterans of the online role-playing genre will find the many errors impeding their fun.

спасибо всем причастным за то что легенда до сих пор жива. есть поддержка, на серверах essence проходят профилактики, за игрой следят и поддерживают ее в актуальном виде. даже фишки типа автобоя вставляют. это очень сильно радует и я надеюсь, что так оно продолжится. сейчас выходят обновления, есть новый класс варг на вульф сервах, плюс по экономике очень грамотно сделали, что можно просто играть и прокачиваться, без нужды вливать бабки бесконечно.

It was the mest MMORPG I played in my life, but the game was great until Kamael. It's still playable but I miss the days of the Chaotic Throne.

I define Lineage-2 to be only The Chaotic Chronicle. Everything that happened after Kamael was released is a totally different game. For both PvP and PvE oriented players, out of the Chaotic Chronicle - C5 (Chronicle 5: Oath of Blood) was arguably the most balanced version, where there was no clearly overpowered class, therefore most classes were useful. However, it seems out of all the servers still running Chaotic Chronicle now in 2016 - there are only ones running C6: Interlude. Why play such an old game in 2016? I have tried/tested many: Rift, Black Gold, Aion, Blade & Soul, ArcheAge, Black Desert, The Secret World, Bless... And I'm a developer actually working on Neverwinter and Star Trek online, so I play those too, if only for work. And guess what? Graphics aside - games are not getting any better than they were in 2004. And even the graphics are reaching a point where improving them further hardly changes the overall impression. So comparing Lineage-2 to tens of MMOs released since about 2003 to this day, here are the pros and cons: Pros: + Freedom. The game is NOT railroading you, nor holding your hand in any way. Wanna go kill lvl 40 monsters at lvl 24 - good luck, you are free to do so and it is possible and somewhat rewarding, although questionable for the profit/time. + Free PvP outside of towns. Killing players who don't fight back increases your Player Killer counter, which gradually increases penalties upon death yet it is possible to thrive with high PK counters - you just gotta be good enough to avoid getting killed :-) + A lot of _distinct_ classes. The Chaotic Chronicle/Throne has 33 different paths after level 40, each has an advanced version available at lvl 76 - which is really a better version of the same. Most other games give you less than 10. + Big, open world. Esp. in C5 and C6. Yes you can find the invisible walls here and there but you have to put in some effort to reach them. + Teamwork. It's really encouraged. Grinding is not as tedious and MUCH more effective in a group. + A live, player-driven economy (except for the x10'000 servers mentioned above). Some games created 12+ years later fail to even come close (I'm looking at you, Black Desert!) + Castle sieges, and hardcore raid bosses. They are massive, they are fun. They are somewhat unpredictable because other parties can and often do interfere. + Mob AI is a bit diverse and has some freedom i.e. the monsters can chase you for miles. Most later MMOs have dumbed down monsters / put them on VERY short leashes. + A lot of community-driven, yet popular (3000+ players per shard) servers, with different approaches to running the shard. Pick one that fits your taste. Some are true hardcore x1 with the bare-bones vanilla content, some are x10'000 with NPCs selling S-grade (BIS items) for 5 coins in every starter NPC shop. And everything in between as well. Cons: - Dated graphics - I'll put it here just to get it out of the way, and - because it's wrong to deny. - Swimming - still not fixed and buggy. There's a way to exploit it though. Controversial: +- The grind. Now, this is HUGELY addressed by the plethora of shards with various rate settings - pick one that suits you best. But, assuming you want to experience the entire game without just skipping to the endgame, and play on x1...x10 rates - the grind is really your best option to level up. +- Your lvl determines your power more than anything else, including your gear. The game makes it pretty much impossible to deal any damage to someone more than 10-12 lvls above you. Once at lvl-73 I could grab some crappy grade-D gear and take out many players of levels 25-50 without much effort. This discourages anything other than grinding until you reach lvl 78-80. +- Only dwarves can craft gear, OR collect resources with about 5 times better yield than any other race. Took me a while to realize how funny and kinda dumb that is. Love it or hate it, but while the other 4 races can compete with each other in various forms of PvP, the dwarves are sitting on the side collecting resources and crafting and selling ALL the gear for ALL of the other races. Now, a good player with a well-equipped dwarf (and dwarves often get BIS for themselves before crafting and selling it to others) - can still kick some ass, but it's still gonna be more like a freighter ship with some guns mounted on it - vs. a purpose-built warship that was designed as such from the start. Overall - while The Chaotic Chronicle is by no means perfect, but - as sad as it may sound - the vast majority of games created since then have their own flaws and too often their flaws are much greater. Most common ones are: lack of player freedom and lack of endgame content. The fact that there are still a lot of Chaotic Chronicle/Chaotic servers around and people are still playing it - only proves the point that it has long-term potential, while younger games with fancier graphics rise and fa

Ehh, what a cool MMORPG was ... Remember how we gathered a party, how we got the second professional? There were times ... But right now, the game went to **** after the departure of one of the developers. It feels like this is a **** game, albeit with an even bigger donation. As for me, the main version of L2 is such **** that only a child or a mentally **** person will play it. Essence is even more or less good, but there is a lot of donation. And the classic is a pathetic parody of the L2 that we lost ...

Don't like this game because is a same type of game like AION. Boring MMO experience....