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.[3] 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.[4]
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.[5] 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.[6]
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.[7]
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.[8]
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.[3][9] 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.[3]
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.[3]
Lead game designer Raoul Kim said that the reason for rendering Lineage II in 3D was "simply because most games today are [also] using 3D graphics", and because they deemed it "more appropriate than 2D for the things that [they] 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.[3][10]
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".[11] There are three versions of Lineage II currently available - Classic/Legacy, Aden/Essence and Live/Main.
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.[15] 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".[18]
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'".[22]
Lineage 2 M
Lineage 2 M is a mobile game that aims to replicate the gameplay of Lineage II but for mobile devices.[23] It was released on November 27, 2019.[24]
NCsoft officially announced Lineage Eternal as the sequel to the first Lineage in November 2011.[27] The first gameplay videos debuted at the G-Star 2011 gaming convention in South Korea on November 10.[28] NCSoft renamed the game Project TL in 2017 and Throne and Liberty in 2022. It was released in 2023.
Content patches
The Chaotic Chronicles
NA launch date
Korean launch date
Codename
Title
28 April 2004
1 October 2003
C0
Prelude
28 June 2004
28 January 2004
C1
Chronicle 1: Harbingers of War
8 December 2004
11 August 2004
C2
Chronicle 2: Age of Splendor
10 May 2005
2 March 2005
C3
Chronicle 3: Rise of Darkness
8 February 2006
26 October 2005
C4
Chronicle 4: Scions of Destiny
6 September 2006
1 June 2006
C5
Chronicle 5: Oath of Blood
The Chaotic Throne
NA launch Date
Korean launch date
Codename
Title (EN/KR)
11 April 2007
13 December 2006
CT0
Interlude
11 December 2007
16 August 2007
CT1
The Kamael
23 April 2008
12 December 2007
CT1.5
Hellbound / Kamael Plus
12 August 2008
30 April 2008
CT2.1
Gracia Part 1
28 October 2008
13 August 2008
CT2.2
Gracia Part 2
28 April 2009
26 November 2008
CT2.3
Gracia Final
17 November 2009
3 June 2009
CT2.4
Gracia Epilogue / Gracia Plus
24 August 2010
3 February 2010
CT2.5
Freya
7 July 2010
High Five
25 August 2010
High Five Part 2
27 October 2010
High Five Part 3
15 February 2011
15 December 2010
CT2.6
High Five / High Five Part 4
14 March 2011
High Five Part 5
Goddess of Destruction (Free2Play)
NA launch Date
Korean launch date
Codename
Title (EN/KR)
30 November 2011
15 June 2011
GD1
Awakening
7 March 2012
19 October 2011
GD1.5
Harmony
13 June 2012
11 January 2012
GD2
Tauti
24 October 2012
25 March 2012
GD2.5
Glory Days
8 June 2012
Echo
31 October 2012
Power of the West Wind
29 May 2013
28 November 2012
GD3
Lindvior / Ruler of the West Wind
23 February 2013
Episodeon
11 December 2013
21 August 2013
GD3.5
Valiance / Raiders
Epic Tale Of Aden
Korean launch date
NA launch date
EU launch date
Codename
Title (EN/KR)
31 December 2013
30 July 2014
14 October 2014
EP1
Ertheia / Dimensional Strangers
25 June 2014
Infinite Odyssey: Prelude to the Journey
27 August 2014
Infinite Odyssey
10 December 2014
22 April 2015
17 June 2015
EP2
Infinite Odyssey / Infinite Odyssey: Shadows of Light Part 1
14 January 2015
Infinite Odyssey: Shadows of Light Part 2
1 May 2015
14 October 2015
EP2.5
Underground / Infinite Odyssey: Hymn of the Soul
17 June 2015
Infinite Odyssey: Will of the Ancients
9 September 2015
29 June 2016
2 August 2016
EP3
Helios
18 May 2016
Grand Crusade
31 August 2016
29 March 2017
25 April 2017
EP4
Grand Crusade / Grand Crusade: Force Bringer
8 February 2017
7 December 2017
6 December 2017
EP5
Salvation: First Chapter (NA) / The Page: Salvation
12 April 2017
Salvation: The Gathering
29 November 2017
22 August 2018
8 August 2018
Salvation - Etina's Fate (NA) / Orfen (KR)
30 July 2018
15 May 2019
22 February 2019
EP5.5
Fafurion
12 December 2018
31 Jule 2019
2 August 2019
Prologue (KR) Fafurion Pt.1 (NA) / Prelude of War (EU)
30 October 2019
27 September 2019
Fafurion Pt.2 (NA) / Prelude of War Pt.2 (EU)
15 January 2020
25 December 2019
Winter of War (NA) / Prelude of War Pt.3 (EU)
1 April 2020
22 April 2020
Dawn of Heroes (NA) / Homunculus (EU)
19 August 2020
15 August 2020
Tales Untold (NA) / Homunculus Ch.2 (EU)
3 February 2021
3 March 2021
Wild Horizons (NA) / Return of the Queen Ant (EU)
16 June 2021
30 June 2021
Herald of Light (NA) / The Return of the Queen Ant Ch. 2 (EU)
↑ 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.
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