Lineage II: The Chaotic Chronicles

In many ways Lineage II: The Chaotic Chronicles is an excellent game. But unfortunately it suffers from a timing issue. It was released about the same time as the superhero MMORPG City of Heroes and there simply is no comparison.

Lineage II: The Chaotic Chronicles is a MMORPG set in a fantasy world of humans, elves, dark elves, orcs and dwarves. Getting started is pretty simple, actually it's a little too simple and that's one of my complaints. You pick a race, then choose either a fighter or mystic and scroll through an amazingly limited selection of body and head types to specialize the look of your character. That's it. As you work your way through the game you'll earn gold which will allow you to further customize your look through new armor and weapons, but it's very disappointing that the programmers didn't spend more time on unique appearances for creating a character.

No matter what race or type of character you choose, you will start out in a temple of sort for some rudimentary training. Once you get through the training you're sent on your way to the village where you can find non player characters who will give you quests to complete. The quests are broken down by level and you can only accept the ones whose level you've reached. You can also just wander around the world beating stuff up and collecting experience and the gold they drop.

Leveling in Lineage II: The Chaotic Chronicles is stripped down as well. When you level for instance, you are given a chance to purchase specific skills with skill points. The skills you choose help shape the type of character you are. In a way this works. What it means is that the higher up in levels you go the more specialized you become. Someone who starts as a level one dark elven fighter could choose skills that by level 40 would make them a Shadow Stalker or Shillien Knight.

Although the game has tons of NPC quests you can complete, Lineage II: The Chaotic Chronicles is really about player interaction. Strewn randomly across the world are a collection of castles ready for the taking, all you have to do is fight your way inside and capture an artifact at it's heart. These castle battles are played like mini capture the flag sessions, awarding the castle to the side that holds it the longest over a set period of time. It's a very clever idea and makes for some mammoth battles.

Unfortunately the combat system is another thing that tends to drag the game down. To fight a creature you just point and click and the game takes from there. You can literally walk away from the computer and go grab a bite to eat. Sure, you have to be around to use the assortment of power-ups and special skills you collect as you level up, but the fighting is still far too simple. Movement is also a little painful. Instead of relying on keyboard keys, as do most third-person games, you have to click on a chunk of ground to get your character to move there. This doesn't always work well with well-textured 3D graphics and you'll find yourself getting stuck far too often on scenery.

One of the saving graces of Lineage II: The Chaotic Chronicles is the spectacular graphics. The game relies on Epic's Unreal engine and really squeezes every ounce of rendering out of the engine. The sounds too do a lot to make the game a pleasure to play.

Lineage II: The Chaotic Chronicles is a game that grows on you, the more you play it the more you will like it, unfortunately there are enough missteps early on to dissuade many players from sticking with the game and realizing its full potential.