RSS Feed
| Lineage II: The Chaotic Chronicle (PC) | |
| Publisher: NCsoft | Developer: NCsoft |
| Genre: Persistent Online RPG | Release Date: 04/27/2004 |
It's become almost axiomatic that the launch of any massively multiplayer online (MMO) game is going to be a disastrous affair filled with bugs and broken gameplay. Anarchy Online, World War II Online, and even Star Wars: Galaxies have all become infamous for these problems. Perhaps it's a sign of the genre's growing maturity that NCSoft's launch of not one but two MMOs in the same week of April 2004 went off so smoothly. While both games weren't without problems, what technical issues they had were fixed remarkably quickly, giving the players of both City of Heroes and Lineage II: The Chaotic Chronicle a smooth MMO experience. Kudos for that.
A smoothly running game, however, is merely what gamers as consumers should expect. Once that happens, MMOs are left to compete on their actual gameplay, and that's where Lineage II becomes an interesting case study. As the MMO genre continues to expand, the types of gameplay that they offer are expanding, with different titles appealing to different tastes. Nowhere was this trend more clear to me than the time I spent playing Lineage II. There's a small, hardcore PvP/guild play segment of MMO fans that are going to absolutely love this game. For the rest of us, the more casual gamers who occasionally like to play solo, Lineage II is going to be the acme of frustration.
Lineage II quite literally puts the "multiplayer" back into the MMO genre. The title is built around universal player-versus-player combat that culminates in the major gameplay dynamic of seizing and holding one of the six major castles that dot the land. Is this a good or bad thing? It depends on your perspective. Players who are looking to just run around, do quests, kill monsters, and go on adventures by themselves or with a small group of friends are going to be dramatically disappointed. Put simply, it's almost impossible to go solo past the first few levels of the game, and the higher you go, the more people you need to be allied with in order to get anything out of it.
Once you understand this, a lot of the game's design and structures start to make sense. The first few character levels and low-level quests in the game are pretty comparable to any other MMO on the market. They'll train you, give you a good overview of the game's world, and help you get enough experience and money to outfit yourself with a basic set of equipment.
Lineage II quite literally puts the "multiplayer" back into the MMO genre. The title is built around universal player-versus-player combat that culminates in the major gameplay dynamic of seizing and holding one of the six major castles that dot the land. Is this a good or bad thing? It depends on your perspective. Players who are looking to just run around, do quests, kill monsters, and go on adventures by themselves or with a small group of friends are going to be dramatically disappointed. Put simply, it's almost impossible to go solo past the first few levels of the game, and the higher you go, the more people you need to be allied with in order to get anything out of it.
Once you understand this, a lot of the game's design and structures start to make sense. The first few character levels and low-level quests in the game are pretty comparable to any other MMO on the market. They'll train you, give you a good overview of the game's world, and help you get enough experience and money to outfit yourself with a basic set of equipment.
The problem is that there's an absurd level of inflation in the world. Gold drops from creatures are a pittance compared with the prices of equipment. Level one swords and armor (hats, pants, shoes, etc.) cost about 900 gold per piece, but during the first ten levels of the game the player will be hunting creatures that drop an average of 40-50 a piece. Without going into the math, you won't be outfitted with a full kit of level one gear until your character reaches level 10 if you go it alone. At that point, if you continue to hunt at your level, you're definitely going to need level 2 gear which suddenly costs 14,000 gold per piece!
The rest of the game is built in a similar fashion. Everything takes an incredibly long time. Healing is slow, leveling is slow, quests are long and boring (one early mission required me to kill 40 black wolves for a pretty paltry return), and creature difficulty ramps up pretty damned fast. By the time I reached level 10, I realized that I had two choices. Either take up the long, boring, laborious process of "Farming" lower-level creatures for their gold (that's why there's been such a problem with bots in this game) or hook up with players that have different classes and skills. From level 7-10, I could only venture out with at least one other fighter and a healer if I didn't want my progress to slow to a crawl. By levels 10-20, you'll need a progressively larger clan to keep up with the insane demand for gold.
Once you reach the higher levels of the game (20+) it really begins to open up. By that time, players will be fully involved in inter-clan politics and the castle sieges that are at the heart of the game. While castle sieges aren't implemented yet (they're coming in "Chronicle 1," the first major update), that hasn't stopped clans and alliances of clans from forming circles of friends and enemies and meeting in designated times and places and trying to slaughter each other. For those players who are really into this gameplay dynamic, Lineage II is a lot of fun. If you aren't, however, odds are you'll never reach level 20 -- there's simply no interesting content for anyone who's not part of a large group. Even the large dragons that are coming in "Chronicle 1" will require huge numbers of players to take down.
This, naturally, puts incredible pressure on clans, and clan leaders especially, to continually expand the size of their clans, bringing in new members to "farm" creatures in an ever-expanding pyramid. Skill points and gold travel up the pyramid, while hand-me-down equipment and treasures work their way toward the bottom. Unfortunately, the tools required to manage such a large organization are somewhat lacking. The game's interface is mostly adequate for the basic functions, but is missing quite a few things that have become normal in most other MMOs. The chat system is pretty primitive, with players unable to split chats across various windows and guild management tools are quite basic. The game desperately needs a good e-mail/bulletin board/member management system. As it stands now, large guilds tend to go offline to handle administrative functions -- guild websites are practically a requirement to handle the level of social coordination required for this game.
The rest of the game is built in a similar fashion. Everything takes an incredibly long time. Healing is slow, leveling is slow, quests are long and boring (one early mission required me to kill 40 black wolves for a pretty paltry return), and creature difficulty ramps up pretty damned fast. By the time I reached level 10, I realized that I had two choices. Either take up the long, boring, laborious process of "Farming" lower-level creatures for their gold (that's why there's been such a problem with bots in this game) or hook up with players that have different classes and skills. From level 7-10, I could only venture out with at least one other fighter and a healer if I didn't want my progress to slow to a crawl. By levels 10-20, you'll need a progressively larger clan to keep up with the insane demand for gold.
Once you reach the higher levels of the game (20+) it really begins to open up. By that time, players will be fully involved in inter-clan politics and the castle sieges that are at the heart of the game. While castle sieges aren't implemented yet (they're coming in "Chronicle 1," the first major update), that hasn't stopped clans and alliances of clans from forming circles of friends and enemies and meeting in designated times and places and trying to slaughter each other. For those players who are really into this gameplay dynamic, Lineage II is a lot of fun. If you aren't, however, odds are you'll never reach level 20 -- there's simply no interesting content for anyone who's not part of a large group. Even the large dragons that are coming in "Chronicle 1" will require huge numbers of players to take down.
This, naturally, puts incredible pressure on clans, and clan leaders especially, to continually expand the size of their clans, bringing in new members to "farm" creatures in an ever-expanding pyramid. Skill points and gold travel up the pyramid, while hand-me-down equipment and treasures work their way toward the bottom. Unfortunately, the tools required to manage such a large organization are somewhat lacking. The game's interface is mostly adequate for the basic functions, but is missing quite a few things that have become normal in most other MMOs. The chat system is pretty primitive, with players unable to split chats across various windows and guild management tools are quite basic. The game desperately needs a good e-mail/bulletin board/member management system. As it stands now, large guilds tend to go offline to handle administrative functions -- guild websites are practically a requirement to handle the level of social coordination required for this game.
Player customization is also a serious issue. For a game that's so dependent on player clans and alliances to not have a truly distinctive method of identifying members of a guild is a crime. Just listing a clan name and tiny floating marks isn't going to cut it. Guild members need tabards, cloaks, or some other distinctive method of identifying their members on their actual bodies. While the game can be easily criticized for the lack of character customization, that's small potatoes to the definite gameplay hampering effects of not being able to instantly identify members of your own clan. Imagine how tough it's going to be once castle sieges actually begin to pick out enemies when everyone has one-of-four basic character appearances and only a tiny floating mark to distinguish them.
Much has been made of Lineage II's beautiful graphics -- and with good reason. Lineage II is absolutely, stunningly gorgeous. I have rarely seen the original Unreal technology modified into such an appealing form. No matter what race or character model you choose to play, odds are you'll be quite pleased at the physical attractiveness of your character. The player models are matched by well-designed and animated monsters and landscapes that simply must be seen to be believed.
Here's the thing, though. All of Lineage II's beauty is just a bunch of empty pixels for players not involved with the high-level game and guild system. Areas have neither rhyme nor reason for existing, save to provide landmarks that clans can use to get together to farm creatures that aren't really threats -- just raw materials for clan growth. I realized this early on while hunting with my first three clanmates in an abandoned coal mine near the dwarf starting town. The coal mine had no narrative flow, interesting story-style quests, nor any logical progression toward an end-point or boss creature. Players just ran through it to an area filled with creatures appropriate to their level and party and started farming.
Much has been made of Lineage II's beautiful graphics -- and with good reason. Lineage II is absolutely, stunningly gorgeous. I have rarely seen the original Unreal technology modified into such an appealing form. No matter what race or character model you choose to play, odds are you'll be quite pleased at the physical attractiveness of your character. The player models are matched by well-designed and animated monsters and landscapes that simply must be seen to be believed.
Here's the thing, though. All of Lineage II's beauty is just a bunch of empty pixels for players not involved with the high-level game and guild system. Areas have neither rhyme nor reason for existing, save to provide landmarks that clans can use to get together to farm creatures that aren't really threats -- just raw materials for clan growth. I realized this early on while hunting with my first three clanmates in an abandoned coal mine near the dwarf starting town. The coal mine had no narrative flow, interesting story-style quests, nor any logical progression toward an end-point or boss creature. Players just ran through it to an area filled with creatures appropriate to their level and party and started farming.
Playing Lineage II, it suddenly became clear why the first Lineage was such an enormous hit despite its primitive graphics. Like the early MUDs and Ultima Online (which is still going strong seven years after its launch), when the majority of the fun in a title stems from social interaction, graphics aren't really that important and the narrative for the game will be written on the fly based on inter-player politics and the results of castle sieges.
Graphics will become important once castle sieges are implemented, because Lineage II's high-end graphics contribute to a nasty case of graphic slowdown. The netcode seems stable, without much lag, and the game runs well enough while hunting or questing or just hanging out. Some of the major cities, though, where there are a lot of graphically complicated people -- not to mention the world itself -- can easily turn the game into a slideshow. Based on my experience in the cities where I got hit with graphic slowdown when there were only 50 or 60 people in the area, I sincerely hope that the "Chronicle" update will prevent that from happening during a castle siege when 200 players are all attacking each other and setting off spell effects at the same time.
Once I understood the basic dynamics of Lineage II, the fact that players could attack other players at any time stopped bothering me. Such a system is not only valuable -- it's a necessity for a game like this. It may instantly turn off more casual players who like to quest, hunt, and explore alone and in small groups. But if you fall into that camp, there's really nothing in this game for you anyway. It's pointless to complain that other players are slamming you from nowhere and preventing you from exploring the game when you realize that getting ambushed by other players is the game. As previously mentioned, everything outside the guild/PvP/player interaction aspect is just window-dressing. If you're not a social player, there is no game to explore.
Graphics will become important once castle sieges are implemented, because Lineage II's high-end graphics contribute to a nasty case of graphic slowdown. The netcode seems stable, without much lag, and the game runs well enough while hunting or questing or just hanging out. Some of the major cities, though, where there are a lot of graphically complicated people -- not to mention the world itself -- can easily turn the game into a slideshow. Based on my experience in the cities where I got hit with graphic slowdown when there were only 50 or 60 people in the area, I sincerely hope that the "Chronicle" update will prevent that from happening during a castle siege when 200 players are all attacking each other and setting off spell effects at the same time.
Once I understood the basic dynamics of Lineage II, the fact that players could attack other players at any time stopped bothering me. Such a system is not only valuable -- it's a necessity for a game like this. It may instantly turn off more casual players who like to quest, hunt, and explore alone and in small groups. But if you fall into that camp, there's really nothing in this game for you anyway. It's pointless to complain that other players are slamming you from nowhere and preventing you from exploring the game when you realize that getting ambushed by other players is the game. As previously mentioned, everything outside the guild/PvP/player interaction aspect is just window-dressing. If you're not a social player, there is no game to explore.
All of that actually doesn't bode well for the future of the title. First, it creates an enormous barrier to entry for new players. If a player doesn't know exactly what kind of game they're playing, the first time they get ambushed by some jackass who gets his rocks off killing newbies may turn them off the game forever. There is no "safe" zone in Lineage II, although the starting areas are a bit less "Wild West" than the rest of the game.
It also creates a world ripe for exploitation. I've written before on the problem of "bots" and "adena farmers." These are players, mostly in Asian countries, who just farm low-level areas for hours at a time and then sell their accumulated gold on eBay to players who are trying to beat "the grind" up to level 20 where the real game begins. Beyond the obvious exploitation angle, this is a serious problem. Players who take this shortcut may never develop the network of social connections needed to play the game the way it's intended to be played. That leads to two possibilities. They either quit when they find that there's no real "game" here because they aren't participating in player politics or they turn to newbie killing and player griefing for sheer lack of anything to do. In fact, it's quite probable that the jerks who get off on griefing other players are exactly the ones most likely to use the "eBay shortcut." Indeed, these players are the very cause of the newbie "barrier to entry." Although all of this is against NCSoft's EULA, it does happen and the company needs to put a stop to it.
The bottom line then, is this. 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. As one of the developers mentioned to me at E3, "Having a million people play testing a game for years tends to work most of the bugs out." While the game still has some problems to work out and some features to implement, MMO gamers who enjoy this type of game should definitely check out Lineage II. The rest of us, though, should probably go back to playing City of Heroes and waiting for World of Warcraft and EverQuest II to be released.
It also creates a world ripe for exploitation. I've written before on the problem of "bots" and "adena farmers." These are players, mostly in Asian countries, who just farm low-level areas for hours at a time and then sell their accumulated gold on eBay to players who are trying to beat "the grind" up to level 20 where the real game begins. Beyond the obvious exploitation angle, this is a serious problem. Players who take this shortcut may never develop the network of social connections needed to play the game the way it's intended to be played. That leads to two possibilities. They either quit when they find that there's no real "game" here because they aren't participating in player politics or they turn to newbie killing and player griefing for sheer lack of anything to do. In fact, it's quite probable that the jerks who get off on griefing other players are exactly the ones most likely to use the "eBay shortcut." Indeed, these players are the very cause of the newbie "barrier to entry." Although all of this is against NCSoft's EULA, it does happen and the company needs to put a stop to it.
The bottom line then, is this. 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. As one of the developers mentioned to me at E3, "Having a million people play testing a game for years tends to work most of the bugs out." While the game still has some problems to work out and some features to implement, MMO gamers who enjoy this type of game should definitely check out Lineage II. The rest of us, though, should probably go back to playing City of Heroes and waiting for World of Warcraft and EverQuest II to be released.
